
Copyright )^° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




GEORGE WASHINGTON 

(From a painting by GILBERT STUART) 



'^ 







WASHINGTON'S 
FAREWELL ADDRESS 



AND 



WEBSTER'S 

FIRST BUNKER HILL 

ORATION 




Edited 
With Introduction and Notes 

BY 

CHARLES ROBERT GASTON, Ph.D. 

Teacher of English in the Richmond Hill High School 
New York City 






GINN & COMPANY 

boston • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 




LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

APK 14 1906 

Copyright Entry 
CL/TSS CL^ XXc. No. 
^ COPY B. 






Washingtoniana 



Copyright, igo6, by 
CHARLES ROBERT GASTON 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
66.4 



GIxNN & COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS . BOSTON • U.S.A. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction : 

Life of Washington the Statesman 

Composition and Publication of the Farewell Address 

Life of Webster the Orator 

The Occasion, the Oration, and the Battle . 
Topics and Questions on Washington's Address 
Topics and Questions on Webster's Oration 



Bool<;s on Washington and Webster 



Washington's Farewell Address . . 
Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration 



PAGE 

V 

XX 

XXV 

xxxviii 
lii 



liii 
liv 



Notes 



47 



INTRODUCTION 



Life of Washington the Statesman 

In preparation for a careful study of Washington's great 
political masterpiece, his Farewell Address to the People of 
the United States ^ it will be best to devote most space to a con- 
sideration of his work as a statesman in the organization and 
successful beginning of the American nation ; yet to compre- 
hend this phase of his life fully it will be necessary to glance 
at the principal incidents of his earlier life in Virginia, his 
exploits in the French and Indian War, and his masterly guid- 
ance of the colonial troops through the Revolution. 

It is hardly necessary to mention the date of Washington's 
birth, because February 22, 1732, is a date almost as well 
known as July 4, 1776. For almost a hundred years before 
Washington was born, his ancestors had been living in Vir- 
ginia. The place of his birth was at Wakefield, in the colony 
of Virginia, near the shore of the Potomac River, in a parish 
named Washington, after the original settler of that name, John 
Washington, great-grandfather of George. Washington's boy- 
hood up to the age of sixteen was spent at Wakefield or 
in its vicinity. He lived from 1735 ^^ 1739 on the plan- 
tation that was later called Mount Vernon. Then the family 
moved to an estate nearly opposite Fredericksburg, where 
Washington lived till the death of his father in 1743. After 
this, for the rest of his boyhood, he was under the care of 
his mother and his half-brothers, Lawrence and Augustine. 
When the father's estates were divided, George went to live at 



vi INTRODUCTIOxN 

Augustine's house on the old Wakefield plantation, since that 
was close to a good school. Returning to his mother's home, 
he attended a school kept by the Rev. James Marye. The 
copy books he worked on have been preserved. In them are 
found copied in a large, round hand over a hundred maxims 
or rules that no doubt made a strong impression on the high- 
spirited Virginian boy, — rules of which this is a good speci- 
men, " Think before you speak ; pronounce not imperfectly, 
nor bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and distinctly." 
In these early school days Washington learned the rudiments 
of surveying. In some of his youthful papers there are neat 
notes of surveys and accurate geometrical figures done with 
the utmost care. " The end of Washington's school-days left 
him, if a good ' cipherer,' a bad speller, and a still worse gram- 
marian " (P. L. Ford's The True George Washington). 

Though living at his mother's home, Washington often visited 
at his brother Lawrence's plantation, Mount Vernon, where he 
mingled with people much older than himself. Big for his age, 
an expert horseman, he was a good companion for William 
Fairfax and Lord Fairfax, the largest property owners in Vir- 
ginia. From his acquaintance with Lord Fairfax came his 
first real work. 

In 1748, just a month after he was sixteen, Washington was 
chosen by Lord Fairfax to travel beyond the Blue Ridge and 
find out what he could about the bounds of the Fairfax estates. 
William Fairfax's son, George William, who was six years older 
than Washington, was nominally the leader in the expedition, 
but to Washington was assigned the actual work of surveying. 
The trip was not child's play, by any means, for the two friends 
were obliged to travel several hundred miles altogether, going 
and coming, and to rough it all the time. Washington ac- 
quitted himself so well in the expedition that on his return he 
was appointed a public surveyor by the governor of Virginia. 
The three years that he spent in this work hardened his frame, 



INTRODUCTION vil 

gave him knowledge of how to deal with difficult problems, 
taught him the ways of the woods, established his reputation 
as a reliable, absolutely accurate surveyor, and strengthened in 
him his early trait of silent self-dependence. 

The next seven years of his life brought him into wider pub- 
lic notice. Lawrence Washington had been for several years 
interested in a land company that planned to settle emigrants 
in the Ohio Valley. As the French were occupying the same 
region, there was bound to be a clash. In preparation, the 
colonists of Virginia formed military organizations. Through 
Lawrence Washington's influence George was appointed ad- 
jutant-general, and entrusted with the work of drilHng a com- 
pany made up in the district that included Mount Vernon. He 
studied military tactics under an old soldier, took lessons in 
swordsmanship from a fencing-master, and commanded the 
company admirably. While he was staying/ ni the island of 
Barbados with Lawrence, he caught the smallpox, which left 
him pockmarked for life. Upon the death of Lawrence in 
July, 1752, George became his executor. In case Lawrence's 
daughter should not live to be of age, George was to inherit 
the Mount Vernon estate. On that plantation he was now 
occupied for some time in settling his brother's estate. Then 
he once more became adjutant-general of a military district, 
with the rank of major. He was selected by Governor Din- 
widdle as commissioner to visit the French commander in the 
Ohio River region, and find out why the French were building 
forts in Enghsh territory. This long journey began in October, 
1753. The commandant was seen, an answer to the English 
questions was received, and the hazardous return journey 
accompHshed. Jtn the spring of 1754 Washington, now a 
lieutenant colonel, took part in his first batde, in which his 
force captured twenty-two prisoners and lost one man killed by 
the French. Colonel Washington threw up a rough fort, called 
Fort Necessity, which he was obliged soon to surrender on 



viii INTRODUCTION 

account of the appearance of a much superior force of French. 
He started back to Virginia on July 4, 1754, unsuccessful in 
his expedition, but he received the thanks of the House of 
Burgesses for the bravery of his soldiers and their gallant 
defense of their country. The next year he was with Brad- 
dock, as aide-de-camp in that general's disastrous expedition, 
about which everyone knows. The next three years he was 
energetically getting ready for another expedition against the 
French. During this time he made a seven weeks' journey to 
Boston to consult Governor Shirley and secure if he could a 
regular commission in the king's army. He failed in this, but 
in 1758 he was at the head of a Virginia regiment when the 
English forces occupied Fort Duquesne and gained possession 
of the Ohio region. These seven years from 1751 to 1758 are 
especially important in Washington's life because in this period 
he learned the necessity of meeting an enemy according to the 
needs of the situation rather than according to mere rules of 
war and old-world military tactics. Though only twenty-six 
years old, he had become the best known miUtary man in 
America. 

On January 6, 1759, Washington was married to Mrs. 
Martha Custis, widow of Daniel Parke Custis. He and his 
pretty and intelligent bride made their home at Mount Ver- 
non, which had now become Washington's by the death of his 
brother Lawrence's daughter. He might have devoted the 
rest of his life to the busy occupation of looking after his 
plantations and those of his wife. He did spend the years 
from 1759 to 1774 in quiet domestic life at Mount Vernon, 
varied by the service that he gave during all this time in the 
Virginia House of Burgesses. He was wont to count his 
work as a burgess an important section of his public life, for 
toward the end of his Farewell Address he must be including 
his membership in the Virginia assembly when he refers to his 
service for his country as having lasted forty- five years. As a 



INTRODUCTION ix 

planter at this period, he was thoroughly posted regarding all 
the details if the management of his estates, from the amount 
of work eich slave could do to the current price of tobacco. 
As a memoer of the House of Burgesses, Washington was con- 
sidered by Patrick Henry '' for solid information and sound 
judgment unquestionably the greatest man in the assembly." 
Though he rarely spoke, there was no question about his 
re-election term after term, for he was known as a thor- 
ough, faithful, well-informed worker on committees, ready to 
speak his opinion on important matters. In the considera- 
tion of the Stamp Act and its repeal, he showed a comprehen- 
sive grasp of the principles at stake for the colonists ; so early 
as 1769 he wrote to a friend that he would not scruple to take 
arms for the gaining of American freedom if that were nec- 
essary as a last resort. This period of his life seems too 
ideal to be lasting. Rich, busy, respected, having a sensible, 
charming wife, happy in his home life and contented in the 
performance of his duties as vestryman and member of the 
assembly, he seems to have been untouched by the trials of 
ordinary existence. The time of stress and strain was soon to 
come. 

In 1774 and in 1775 ^^ ^^^ a delegate to the Continental 
Congresses, at Philadelphia. From June 15, 1775, till Decem- 
ber 23, 1783, he was commander-in-chief of the Continental 
forces. In the Congresses he was not a speaker often appeal- 
ing loudly to his fellow-members in favor of immediate force 
against England, but a resolute and faithful worker on com- 
mittees, carrying out plans for the defense of the country and 
the raising of an army. At the age of forty-three he was 
elected by ballot in Congress as general of the Continental 
armies. A historian describes him at this time as a tall man 
of pleasing and benign countenance. His outdoor Hfe on his 
plantation and his exposure to all sorts of weather and hard- 
ships during his campaigns on the frontier had given him a 



X INTRODUCTION 

rugged physical strength. His strict temperance during these 
years helped to bring him to the perfection of physical fitness* 
His head was " perfectly round," his complexion florid. The 
most characteristic features of his countenance were his broad 
nostrils, his long, finely arched eyebrows, his high forehead, 
and his deep-set blue eyes, which looked usually earnest or 
even pensive. Descriptions of Washington given by friends 
in 1759, 1778, and 1797 all include mention of his height 
(6 ft., 3^ in.), his big frame, his great physical strength, and 
his dignified bearing. 

In the war he guided the Continental forces in a masterly 
way familiar to all. It is sufficient here merely to enumerate 
his more important actions. He vigorously punished a colonel 
and two captains for cowardly shirking at Bunker Hill, and 
thus brought discipline to the army under his command. He 
compelled the evacuation of Boston, March 17, 1776, was 
defeated at the battle of Long Island on August 27, and again 
at White Plains on October 28 of the same year. He sur- 
prised the Hessians at Trenton December 26, 1776, and beat 
the British army at Princeton in January, 1777. He was 
defeated at Brandywine and Germantown that year, but 
brought the army safely through the winter of Valley Forge in 
1 7 77-1 7 78. He fought the indecisive battle of Monmouth in 
1778, and received a unanimous vote of thanks from Con- 
gress for his conduct of this action. Having passed the win- 
ter of 1 779-1 780 with his army near Morristown, New Jersey, 
he was obliged to remain on the defensive during the follow- 
ing year because of the weakness of his army and the insuffi- 
ciency of its equipment. In 1781 he compelled the surrender 
of Cornwallis at Yorktown. All these achievements he accom- 
plished, of course, not by himself alone, but assisted by the 
celebrated generals of the Revolution and the determined 
patriots of all the colonies. At last, when the war was over, he 
resigned as commander-in-chief, in December, 1783, at Annap- 



INTRODUCTION XI 

: olis, where Congress was then assembled. On the way there, 
at Fraunce's Tavern, in^Broad Street, New York, he said fare- 
well to his officers in words which epitomize his relations with 
them during, the war, "With a heart full of love and gratitude 
I now take my leave of you, most devoutly wishing that your 
latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former 
ones have been glorious and honorable." At Annapolis he 
said, in delivering his resignation to Congress, " The great events, 
on which my resignation depended, having at length taken 
place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratula- 
tions to Congress, and of presenting myself before them, to sur- 
render into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim 
the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country." 

For four years after this he lived in retirement at Mount 
Vernon, busy with private affairs, yet necessarily thinking and 
planning about the best way to establish the nation securely. 
His farms, much neglected for eight years, needed careful 
management. He rejoiced in the opportunity of resuming 
his old, hospitable, outdoor life on a plantation. He took 
long journeys, much as in his earlier days, on horseback, to 
visit his extensive holdings of land. There was, however, a 
deal of correspondence to be attended to, because he was 
now one of the famous men of the world. People of all 
sorts, on all sorts of errands, visited him. Historians desired 
data, painters wished to make his portrait. As the nation 
was not yet firmly established, the man who had guided it 
through the war for freedom, naturally, even in retirement, 
gave much time to the consideration of the best means for 
setthng the government. He understood as well as any 
statesman of the time the inadequacy of the Articles of Con- 
federation ratified in 1781. In fact, he wrote to James 
Warren, of Massachusetts, that the Confederation seemed little 
more than a shadow without substance. In furtherance of 
his idea of knitting the people firmly together, commercially 



xn INTRODUCTION 

as well as in sentiment, he planned the James River and 
Potomac canals. His attempts to bring about commercial 
union between Maryland and Virginia led to a call for a 
convention at Annapolis to consider the subject. 

After the Annapolis convention a call was soon issued for 
the convention of 1787 at Philadelphia. Washington did not 
feel well enough to undertake attending the convention, but in 
spite of his pleas to be excused he was elected head of the Vir- 
ginia delegation. When the convention organized, he became 
president. He acted as chairman during the four months of 
the convention, speaking only once on a motion, yet making 
himself a powerful influence in all the deliberations. The mo- 
mentous work of forming the Constitution was consummated 
on September 17, 1787, on which day Washington, as presid- 
ing officer of the convention, was the first to sign the Constitu- 
tion. He helped materially in getting that instrument ratified 
by Virginia, and when the other colonies had ratified it so that 
it was adopted, he was chosen President of the United States, 
unanimously, in February, 1789. 

Washington served as President from April 30, 1 789, when 
he was inaugurated at New York, till March 4, 1797. At the 
close of his first term, in 1792, he was unanimously re-elected. 
To forestall any efforts to induce him to serve a third term he 
issued, in September, 1796, his Farewell Address to the People 
of the United States. 

In his address to the two houses of Congress on the day of 
his inauguration, Washington declared it to be his conviction 
that the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the suc- 
cessful perpetuation of the republican form of government 
depended perhaps finally on the success of the experiment 
then to be begun. Washington's services as first President 
were of incalculable worth to the nation.^ With firmness and 

1 To these years of Washington's life, Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, who 
is looking at Washington particularly from the point of view of his work 



LNTRODUCTION xiii 

persistence a national feeling had to be nourished, or the nation 
could not endure. Washington was the one man in America 
possessed of the necessary qualifications to administer the gov- 
ernment at its initiation. To put the machinery of national 
government in working order was a task of impressive mag- 
nitude when we consider the entire lack of a system upon 
which to build. There were no departments like those now 
familiar to us, no traditions, no forms of business. Funds for 
the expenses of government were lacking. The army was 
practically nothing, there was no navy. It takes a violent 
wrench of the thoughts to comprehend the utter absence of 
machinery of government when Washington set about his task. 
In making a start he looked for good men to assist him. No 
person had influence with him beyond the powers of reason 
and argument, said John Adams. Washington discharged the 
duties of his office with absolute impartiahty. He made his 
appointments solely with a view to gathering all the talent of 
the country in support of the national government. Neverthe- 
less, he advisedly chose as members of the Supreme Court and 
of his cabinet men who had favored the Constitution : for the 
Supreme Court sound lawyers like John Jay, and for the cabinet 
Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, Randolph as Attorney- 
General, Knox as Secretary of War, and Jefferson as Secretary 
of State. These were the departments which Congress estab- 
lished the summer after Washington's inauguration. When 
the work of organizing the government thus far had been 
completed, a good start had been made for a successful 
administration. 

as a statesman, with justice devotes more than a third of the seven hun- 
dred pages of his biography. Other biographers, however, do not observe 
anything like this proportion ; John Fiske, for example, in his abridg- 
ment of Irving's biography of Washington, gives less than a seventh of 
his six hundred pages to this period, and Horace E. Scudder allows less 
than an eighth of his little book of two hundred and fifty pages to Wash- 
ington's life as a statesman. 



XIV INTRODUCTION 

A journey by the President through the states of the Union 
cemented national feeling, so that everywhere the people were 
prepared to accept the acts of Washington as performed by 
one who knew the conditions in all parts of the country. 
When Congress met in New York, in January, 1790, the 
President appeared in person and addressed both houses as- 
sembled to hear him. He outlined his policies regarding 
education, the encouragement of invention, a proper military 
establishment, the treatment of the Indians, the financial 
problem, and the diplomatic service. Along lines which he 
definitely suggested or in accordance with general principles 
which he announced, these matters were gradually adjusted. 
His wish, however, that a national university might be estab- 
lished was never carried out. His suggestion regarding the 
advisability of encouraging invention was accepted, for in 1 790 
Congress laid the foundation of our present patent and copy- 
right laws. Rudimentary provision was also made for the army 
in accordance with the President's recommendation. In 
the treatment of the Indians Washington brought into use the 
ideas he had gained years before in the frontier wars. In the 
North, the West, and the South the troubles with the Indians 
were quieted by his firm policy ; where a commission was un- 
availing he was always swift to resort to arms, and to fight on 
till the difficulties were settled. 

Upon the establishment of a sound financial policy much 
depended for the success of Washington's administration. 
Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, was the statesman to put 
the nation on the road from bankruptcy to solvency. After 
the war, when the federation was weak, everything looked dark 
financially. When the first President was elected, there seemed 
no hope of straightening out the financial condition of the 
country. Hamilton had a plan by which to provide for the 
national debt, the foreign debt, and the debts of the several 
states. After violent debates, the plan was adopted by Con- 



INTRODUCTION XV 

gress. Then, at Hamilton's recommendation, Congress voted 
the establishment of a national bank, and Washington signed 
the bill. By the approval of this measure Washington per- 
formed what has been called the most important single act of 
his presidency. Other matters connected with the financial 
policy of the administration were the establishment of the 
principle of laying duties on imports for the sake of protecting 
home manufactures, and the laying of internal revenue duties 
on whiskey. 

This latter policy brought on the so-called " Whiskey Insur- 
rection," which school histories treat with sufficient fullness to 
make necessary here only a slight mention of the incident as 
affecting our national development. The borderers of western 
Pennsylvania objected to the payment of a tax on spirits. 
They grew turbulent, stopping the mails and rioting generally. 
Washington issued proclamations on the subject in vain. Then, 
in 1794, he called out the militia of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Virginia. Treating the insurrection with deep 
seriousness, he wrote to the soldiers that they were engaged in 
a most important service, that of preserving the blessings of the 
Revolutionary War, which "at much expense of blood and 
treasure constituted us a free and independent nation." When 
the ringleaders saw the attitude of the government, they surren- 
dered, ending the insurrection. The incident was extremely 
important in Washington's administration in that it settled the 
fact that the government had power and would use it wherever 
the national enactments were resisted. 

The nation grew territorially while Washington was President. 
Three new states were admitted to the Union, — Vermont, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee. The District of Columbia, which is 
under the immediate government of Congress,, was organized 
in 1 790-1 791. The place where the city of Washington now is 
was chosen as the capital of the United States on July 8, 
1792, but the seat of government was not established there till 



XVI INTRODUCTION 

1800. President Washington laid the corner-stone of the 
original Capitol in 1793. 

The last element of the administration to be considered is the 
matter of the relations of the new nation with other nations. 
Europe was in a turmoil. The very year in which Washington 
was inaugurated the French Revolution broke out (see page 
39). In his second term France and England were at war. 
Because of the aid given by France to America in the American 
Revolution, France expected the aid of America against Eng- 
land. Washington would not give it. The parties into which 
the people had become divided being split on the question of 
how to act in the crisis, it was the judgment of Washington 
more than any other element that kept America aloof from 
the European tangle. In an autograph letter now preserved 
in the British Museum, President Washington wrote to an 
English lord, from Philadelphia, under date of April 22, 1793,. 
" I believe it is the sincere wish of united America to have 
nothing to do with the political intrigues or the squabbles of 
European nations, but on the contrary to exchange commodi- 
ties and live in peace and amity with all the inhabitants of the 
earth." When France sent Citizen Genet to the United States 
in 1 793 to obtain American aid, Washington checked his plans. 
Genet tried to get help against England from Americans who 
lived on the frontiers. Upon Washington's complaint to the 
French government. Genet was recalled. 

Besides the Citizen Genet episode, another question to 
handle concerned the strained relations between the American 
nation and England. During the wars with the Indians re- 
ferred to above, the English had shown themselves sympa- 
thizers with the Indians if not their secret supporters. Detroit 
was still held by the British soldiers, American seamen were 
being impressed, and ships were being seized. John Jay was 
sent to England, where he negotiated a treaty which partially 
settled the difficulties with that nation. Two of the most 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

important items of the treaty were that it left open the question 
of the impressment of American seamen and that it gave to 
the United States the western posts long the subject of dispute. 
The treaty was signed late in 1794, was presented to the 
Senate in June of the next year for ratification, and, having 
been finally approved by the Senate, was signed by the Presi- 
dent on August 18, 1795. 

The conduct of these foreign complications brought upon 
Washington more criticism than he had ever received before 
since entering public life ; some critics even went so far as to 
say that Washington had no real merits either as a statesman or 
as a general. Perhaps such acerbity of denunciation prompted 
Washington to speak so emphatically in his Farewell Address 
regarding the need for steering clear of permanent alliances 
with any portion of the foreign world. Of course the sober 
judgment of later years, when the political animosities of the 
two parties of the time had been forgotten, cleared Washing- 
ton entirely of the charge of blundering in the Genet and Jay 
incidents. 

At the close of his second term in the presidency Washing- 
ton again retired to Mount Vernon, having assured, so far as 
one great statesman could do so, the permanent prosperity of 
the American nation. John Jay, in a letter to Richard Peters, 
March 29, 181 1, summed up the character of Washington's 
presidency concisely when he said that the administration 
raised the nation out of confusion into order, out of degrada- 
tion and distress into reputation and prosperity : it found the 
country withering ; it left it flourishing. 

It was with a sense of relief that Washington returned to 
Mount Vernon after John Adams had delivered his inaugural 
address as the new President. There was so much to do in 
repairing the buildings on his estate and looking after his 
farms that Washington had now no time to look into books. 
His letters of the period seem especially homely and interest- 

b 



xvm INTRODUCTION 

ing in their revelation of the simple life at home of a domesti- 
cally inclined sexagenarian. He says the joiners and masons 
and painters have invaded his home, till there is hardly a room 
to sit in where one can escape the music of the hammer and 
the odoriferous scent of paint. He is almost jocular in his 
comments on the strange faces come out of curiosity to see 
him. Yet even at this late date in his life he could not be 
left in tranquil content, for French cruisers captured American 
vessels, and three members of an American commission to 
France were grossly insulted. The nation called Washington 
to the head of the army again in July, 1798, He accepted 
on the understanding that he should not take actual command 
until there should be a formal declaration of war with France. 
Watchful of the events happening in the nation at large, but 
mostly occupied with his simple home duties, he waited at 
Mount Vernon, ready to go to the front if actual hostilities 
should begin. Before the difficulty with France had been 
settled, he caught a severe cold on the twelfth of December 
from riding about his plantation " while rain, hail, and snow 
were falling alternately " (Ford's The True George Washiftg- 
ton). He quietly passed away on December 14, 1799, and 
was buried at Mount Vernon. 

In Washington's honor there has been erected the great 
Washington Monument, overlooking the Capitol and com- 
manding a magnificent view of the city of Washington and 
all the surrounding country. Daniel Webster described the 
monument in 185 1 as a "marble column, sublime in its simple 
grandeur, and fitly intended to reach a loftier height than any 
similar structure on the face of the whole earth." The monu- 
ment is not now the highest structure in the world, but anyone 
who has seen both will at once admit that the Washington 
Monument is far more impressive than the Eiffel Tower of 
Paris, though that is almost twice as high. 

Of more importance than even the grandest of marble 



INTRODUCTION xlx 

columns as a memorial of Washington is the esteem in which 
he has been held, in America and the civilized world, since 
the day of his death. For several years preceding the death 
of Washington celebrations of his birthday were held in various 
patriotic circles. Since then the observance of this anni- 
versary has become universal. Hundreds of commemorative 
addresses delivered en February 22, in praise of Wash- 
ington, have been printed and widely circulated. One of 
the most notable occasions on which his virtues and services 
were commemorated was the centennial anniversary in the 
city of Washington, when Daniel Webster eulogized the 
" Father of his Country." With a paragraph from that elo- 
quent memorial oration this sketch of Washington's life may 
be concluded. The tribute of Webster is worth being com- 
mitted to memory, 

" We are met here to testify our regard for him whose name 
is intimately blended with whatever belongs most essentially 
to the prosperity, the liberty, the free institutions, and the 
renown of our country. That name was of power to rally a 
nation, in the hour of thick-thronging public disasters and 
calamities ; that name shone, amid the storm of war, a beacon 
light, to cheer and guide the country's friends ; it flamed, too, 
like a meteor, to repel her foes. That name, in the days of 
peace, was a loadstone, attracting to itself a whole people's 
confidence, a whole people's love, and the whole world's 
respect. That name, descending with all time, spreading over 
the whole earth, and uttered in all the languages belonging to 
the tribes and races of men, will forever be pronounced with 
affectionate gratitude by every one in whose breast there shall 
arise an aspiration for human rights and human liberty." 

QUESTIONS 

1. Which do you consider the more interesting, Washington's early 
life or his life after 1775 ? 

2. Was Washington an educated man ? 



XX INTRODUCTION 



Circumstances of the Composition and Publication of 
THE Farewell Address 

When Washington accepted the presidency in 1789, he had 
no idea of occupying the office more than one term. As the 
end of his term approached, he gave his thoughts to the ques- 
tion of how he might announce his intention not to serve 
longer. On 20 May, 1792, he wrote to James Madison ask- 
ing for advice on the subject. In this letter Washington re- 
iterated what he had said to Madison in various conversations, 
— that he wished to retire from office in order that he might 
spend the remainder of his days, which he could not expect to 
be long, in ease and tranquillity. A part of the letter was 
occupied by a proposed valedictory address evidently mapped 
out after much reflection on the matter. Madison was re- 
quested to offer suggestions on what he deemed suitable to 
include in such an address — if it was thought advisable to 
prepare a farewell. He replied on 20 June, 1792, offering 
a rough draft beginning, '' The period which will close the 
appointment with which my fellow-citizens have honored me, 
being not very distant, and the time actually arrived at which 
their thoughts must be designating the citizen who is to 
administer the executive government of the United States 
during the ensuing term, it may be requisite to a more distinct 
expression of the public voice, that I should apprise such of 
my fellow-citizens as may retain their partiaHty towards me, 
that I am not to be numbered among those out of whom a 
choice is to be made." It will be noticed that in the final 
address Washington retained this sentence substantially as 
proposed by Madison. In this letter Madison gave as his 
advice regarding the mode of pubhcation of the address 
Washington wished to make, that there was no better mode 
than " a simple publication in the newspapers," because there 



INTRODUCTION XXI 

Would be no opportunity of offering it through the medium 
of the general legislature, and the situation would hardly admit 
of a recurrence to the state governments which were the 
channels used for the former valedictory address known among 
Washington's writings as General Washington's Address to 
the Governors of the States on Disbanding the Army. The 
precedent at Washington's military exit made it wise, in 
Madison's opinion, to publish some kind of farewell at the 
laying down of the duties of the presidency. 

Washington's desire to leave the official service of the 
government at this time, however, had to yield for another 
four years to his sense of his duty to the nation. Conse- 
quently he accepted another term. As the end of this second 
term drew near, he again made up his mind that he should be 
allowed to retire to private life, though there seemed to be 
a general desire on the part of the people that he accept still 
another term. In May, 1796, toward the close of his second 
term, he received from Alexander Hamilton a request that 
a proposed draft of a farewell address be sent to Hamilton in 
order that he might do as the President had asked him in con- 
versation to do, namely, suggest ideas to be included in the 
address. For most of the time intervening between this date 
and the date of publication both Washington and Hamilton 
had the subject on their minds. A number of letters passed 
between them with regard to the points to be covered and 
their proper expression. Jay also was consulted by the Presi- 
dent on the important subject. A letter of John Jay, written 
March 29, 181 1, to explain the history of the composition 
of the address, is of especial value in a determination of how 
the address was formed. The material parts of the letter 
follow : — 

" Some time before the address appeared, Colonel, (after- 
wards General), Hamilton, informed me that he had received 
a letter from President Washington, and with it the draft of a 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

Farewell Address, which the President had prepared, and 
on which he requested our opinion. He then proposed that 
we should fix on a day for an interview at my house on the 
subject. A day was accordingly appointed, and on that day 
Colonel Hamilton attended. He observed to me in words 
to this effect, that after having read and examined the draft, it 
appeared to him to be susceptible of improvement. That he 
thought the easiest and best way was to leave the draft, un- 
touched, and in its fair state ; and to write the whole over 
with such amendments, alterations, and corrections as he 
thought were advisable, and that he had done so ; he then 
proposed to read it and make it the subject of our consideration. 
This being agreed to, he read it, and we proceeded delib- 
erately to discuss and consider it, paragraph by paragraph, 
until the whole met with our mutual approbation. Some 
amendments were made during the interview, but none of 
much importance. 

"Although this business had not been hastily dispatched, 
yet, aware of the consequence of such a paper, I suggested 
the giving it further critical examination ; but he declined it, 
saying he was pressed for time, and was anxious to return 
the draft to the President without delay. 

" It afterwards occurred to me that a certain proposition 
was expressed in terms too general and unqualified ; and I 
hinted it in a letter to the President. As the business took 
the course above mentioned, a recurrence to the draft was 
unnecessary, and it was not read. There was this advantage 
in the course pursued ; the President's draft remained, (as 
delicacy required,) fair and not obscured by interlineations, 
&c. By comparing it with the paper sent with it, he would 
immediately observe the particular emendations and correc- 
tions, that were proposed, and would find them standing in 
their intended places. Hence he was enabled to review, and 
to decide on the whole matter, with much greater clearness 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

and facility, than if he had received them in separate and 
detached notes, and with detailed references to the page and 
lines, where they were advised to be introduced " (^Memoirs 
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania^ Vol. I, Part II, pp. 
249-251). 

The draft made by Hamilton and discussed by him with 
Jay is printed as an appendix in Horace Binney's An Inqimy 
into the Formation of Washifigton's Farewell Address, Phila- 
delphia, 1859. Here a number of passages proposed by 
Hamilton but not finally embodied by Washington in his 
address are enclosed in brackets. Though a minute study 
of the origin of Washington's great state paper is intensely 
fascinating, it reveals for general purposes only this, that 
Washington, before giving to the country an important state 
paper, desired, like most great executives, all possible advice, 
obtained it, and then followed in the main the dictates of his 
own matured judgment. 

. Regarding the manner in which the address was first made 
pubHc, David C. Claypoole wrote a detailed and convincing 
statement, dated February 22, 1826, and published in the 
Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, 
Part II, pp. 255-257. He says that a few days before the 
appearance of the document in print he received a message 
from the secretary of the President, requesting him to call 
upon the President. The President received him privately, 
in his drawing-room, and explained that he had for some 
time contemplated retiring from public life ; that he had some 
thoughts and reflections which he wished to communicate to 
the people of the United States, in the form of an address, to 
appear in the columns of the American Daily Advertiser, of 
which Mr. Claypoole was editor and proprietor. Of course 
the editor thanked President Washington for having chosen his 
paper as the channel through which the communication should 
be made. It was then arranged that the manuscript should be 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

taken by the President's secretary to the printer on the next 
day, which was Friday, and that the pubhcation should be on 
the following Monday. After the President had corrected the 
proof, making few alterations from the original except in the 
punctuation, " in which he was very minute," the address 
was printed, on the day agreed upon, September 19, 1796. 
However, the editor of the Advertiser seems to have taken it 
upon himself to date the address September 17, 1796, in spite 
of the fact that the original manuscript, in Washington's own 
hand, presented by him to Claypoole after the publication of 
the document, and now preserved in the Lenox Library, New 
York, is plainly dated United States, 19th September, 1796, 
the day fixed upon in advance, by the President, for publica- 
tion. There was no issue of the paper on Sunday, the eight- 
eenth,, and very likely the type was set up on the seventeenth. 
I conjecture, therefore, that the date of the putting of the 
address into type is the date usually given for the address, 
namely, September 17, 1796. This statement of the circum- 
stances leading directly to the publication will at all events 
show plainly how the confusion in dates arose. 

On September the twentieth, the day after the document 
was printed, the Advertiser contained a little paragraph : 
"Yesterday morning the President of the United States left 
this city [Philadelphia], on his journey to Mount Vernon." 
In the issues of the newspaper immediately preceding the 
publication Si the great state paper, there is no intimation 
that the address would soon be published, nor are there 
comments upon it in subsequent issues. 



INTRODUCTION XXV 

II 

Life of Webster the Orator 

Daniel Webster (Jan. i8, 1782-Oct. 24, 1852) was 
forty-three years old when he delivered the oration pop- 
ularly known as the Fiist Blinker Hill Oration, At this 
time, June 17, 1825, he had been before the public for almost 
a quarter of a century as a speaker of magnetic power and 
eloquence. He had gained fame as one of the stanchest up- 
holders of national development and unity. He was the idol 
of New England in politics and law. Only the year before, he 
had been elected to the 19th Congress by a vote of four thou- 
sand nine hundred and ninety out of five thousand votes cast. 
He had already delivered orations considered at the time 
among the finest ever spoken in New England. All this 
success had not come by chance. His school and college 
days prepared him generously for the eminent position he 
had gained in the practice of the law and the pursuit of 
politics ; his experiences in the courts and the legislature 
fitted him for his occasional extraordinary bursts of oratory 
such as the Bunker Hill oration. 

Like Hawthorne and Scott, Johnson and Pope, Webster 
was delicate as a boy, and unable to attend school regularly. 
The good women of his native town, Salisbury, New Hamp- 
shire, were sure so delicate a child would never live to grow 
up. He loved to play in the woods and fields and to read 
good books. Addison's essays in The Spectator were favorites 
with him in these early days. An old soldier used to carry 
him about on his back and tell him stories of Bunker Hill and 
the deeds of the armies. The teamsters used to talk in tones 
of wonderment of what that " Webster boy " knew, picked up 



xxvi INTRODUCTION 

hit or miss from his reading, and they used to like to hear him 
read the Bible, says one of his biographers, because the boy 
read with an extraordinary childish eloquence. He knew by 
heart large portions of the Holy Scriptures, and learned most 
of the Constitution of the United States from studying one side 
of a bandanna handkerchief containing that masterpiece of 
political wisdom. His attendance at district schools here and 
there was not of much moment in the progress of his educa- 
tion. It was not till he reached the age of fourteen that 
he began school work of any real significance. In 1796 he 
entered Phillips Exeter Academy, a diffident boy averse to 
public performances of any kind. It was impossible to get 
him to appear before the school when it was his turn to 
declaim. After less than a year at the academy, his father 
and mother, though poor, resolved to put another mortgage 
on the farm, wear their old clothes another season, and let 
Daniel go to college. He was consequently placed under 
the instruction of a minister who coached him sufficiently in 
Latin and Greek for him to enter Dartmouth College, at 
Hanover, New Hampshire. 

In August, 1797, he entered college. Here he found himself 
ill prepared in the classics and disinclined to the study of 
mathematics. In this respect there is something very human 
about young Webster. He was not one of your youthful prod- 
igies of all-round learning. Yet by strict attention to the work 
in hand, he made up the deficiencies of his preparation, so 
that by the end of his Freshman year he was recognized as the 
best student of his class. Moreover, as he grew older he lost 
the diffidence that had been due to his realization of how much 
like a farmer's boy he looked in comparison with some of his 
schoolmates. He became, indeed, a good college declaimer, 
and he made a little money to help pay his college expenses 
by editing a weekly paper for a year. In 1800 he was called 
upon to deliver the Fourth of July oration before the citizens 



INTRODUCTION xxvii 

of Hanover. Though somewhat bombastic, as was to be ex- 
pected from his youth and training, this speech, the first of 
Webster's orations that has been preserved, gave promise of 
his later more truly oratorical addresses. After four years in 
college, he received his degree in 1801. 
y Upon graduating he commenced the study of the law in the 
office of a successful lawyer of Salisbury. He found, however, 
that there was no money in the lawyer's office. He desired 
money now not so much for his own enjoyment as for the 
success of his brother's plans. Ezekiel, who was older than 
Daniel, had made up his mind also to go to college. As 
school teaching promised greater immediate returns than a 
law office, Daniel taught school in Fryeburg, Maine. He made 
a good school-teacher, liked by the boys and the villagers. 
Then he resumed work in the lawyer's office. When he 
came of age, he joined the church. His interest in politics 
also began to be keen, the Federalist party being the one 
which attracted his support. In 1804 he went to Boston, 
where he continued his legal education. The next year he 
was admitted to the bar, at the age of twenty-three. 

From the time of his admission to the bar till his election to 
Congress, Webster was busy in the practice of the law. He 
soon outgrew Boscawen, where, after admission to the bar, he 
started his practice, and moved to a larger place, Portsmouth, 
the chief town of his native state, the same place celebrated 
for the arranging of the Peace of Portsmouth, between Japan 
and Russia, in 1905. He became known as a skilled prac- 
titioner who had a faculty for eloquent speech on occasion. 
It was not long before he could hold his own fairly well with 
the most eminent lawyer of New Hampshire, Jeremiah Mason, 
a man much older than he. It is recorded, however, that 
though Mr. Mason greatly admired the talents of his young 
opponent and ungrudgingly praised them, it was Mr. Mason 
who won the cases when the two men were pitted against 



xxviil INTRODUCTION 

each other. Incidentally Webster continued to show his ora- 
torical bent in Fourth of July orations and addresses on patri- 
otic themes. His style was vivid and fluent, though a little 
too sophomoric for greatest effectiveness in winning cases in 
the courts. His anniversary address of July 4, 1806, before 
the Federal gentlemen of Concord, New Hampshire, and its 
vicinity, is characterized by such cutting irony and so much of 
righteous sarcasm that it stirs one's feelings even when read in 
the deep quiet of the British Museum on a summer's day. 
" Patriotism hath given place," says the young orator, " to the 
more laudable spirit of economy. Regard to national honor, 
that remnant of chivalry, and offspring of the dark ages, is 
absorbed in a thirst for gain and desire of saving — the liberal 
sentiments of enlightened times." By studying the methods 
of opponents like Mason, he learned that when he was in a 
court room he ought to prune his natural flights, speak more 
directly, and thus appeal more surely to juries. As a lawyer 
in Portsmouth, Webster developed steadily and rapidly, being 
distinguished principally by a certain intolerant rudeness of 
strength, an impressive indolence of manner until aroused, 
and a quality of seizing upon the essential principles under- 
lying the cases which he argued. 

His Fourth of July oration in 1812 at Portsmouth before 
the Washington Benevolent Society was considered remarkable 
at the time. Published at Portsmouth that year, it was read 
widely through the New England states. In fact, it was the 
immediate cause of his entrance into active political life. For 
three or four years previous to this time he had felt a strong 
inclination for politics, and had been pointed to by his friend, 
the shrewd-minded lawyer who later became governor, Mr. 
William Plumer, as especially fitted for this kind of service to 
the state. As a result of the favor with which his Portsmouth 
speech was received, Webster was elected a delegate to the 
Rockingham County convention in August, 1812. In this 



INTRODUCTION ^ xxix 

convention he was chosen to write a memorial condemning 
the war with England. The memorial that Webster produced 
was a remarkably strong presentation of the current Federalist 
sentiment. It was so much to the taste of the Rockingham 
County delegates that Webster was selected by the convention 
as the nominee for Congress, and it was so much approved by 
the voters that he was easily elected. In the national House 
of Representatives Webster made few speeches during this first 
term of his, in the 13th Congress, because he was feeling 
his way and reading and reflecting on the questions of moment 
in this critical period. One of his speeches in the Congress 
was his address in 18 14 on a bill making further provision for 
filling the ranks of the regular army. Webster maintained 
that public poHcy demanded strengthening and expansion of 
the navy rather than the army. At the close of his term he 
was elected again, and now spoke more frequently. 

His efforts in favor of a sound, conservative national bank 
were his most important work in this session. His eloquent 
speeches were constantly referred to in conversations among 
the members, for he had already become a leading member of 
the House. 

In 18 1 6 Webster moved to Boston, declining another 
nomination to Congress. For six years he made his home 
quietly in Boston, though he was often called to Washington 
to argue cases before the Supreme Court. Instead of the in- 
come of two thousand dollars which had been all he could 
make up to this time, he soon found himself making twenty 
thousand in this wider field. He was even at this period of 
his life, however, so careless in money matters that he never 
saved any money ; before his death he had to face charges of 
dishonesty in the handling of public funds, because his early 
carelessness became later a habit never overcome. One of 
the reasons for his political retirement at this period was 
no doubt his great grief over the death of his daughter 



XXX INTRODUCTION 

Grace. The dignified lawyer and statesman was completely 
broken down with sorrow over the death of a child whom 
he dearly loved. 

During this intermission in his political career Webster 
made his most famous legal argument, that in the Dartmouth 
College case, before the Supreme Court. There is scarcely 
space in a biographical sketch of this length to take more than 
a passing glance at the connection of Webster with this case. 
In his interesting and lucid exposition of the facts of the great 
legal controversy, in the American Statesmen biography of 
Webster, Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge points out that Webster 
won the case for his alma mater not altogether on his strong 
constitutional argument, but also to a large extent on the 
strength of other elements in his speeches that dealt with 
matters outside the law. Briefly, the circumstances of the case 
were that there were two boards of trustees of the college, one 
elected by those representing the founders of the institution 
and the other by the New Hampshire legislature. The col- 
lege trustees held that the board appointed by the legislature 
could not legally serve. The case finally came before the 
Supreme Court of the United States. Webster was the prin- 
cipal lawyer for the plaintiffs. He made his argument March 
lo, 1818. By his masterly arrangement of the legal points 
gathered by other lawyers associated with him, and by his 
skillful and supremely tactful appeal to the political prejudices 
of Chief Justice Marshall and the other judges, Webster gained 
their sympathy so that they decided in favor of the college 
trustees. 

After the period of political inactivity Webster was again 
called to Congress. In 1822, without any solicitation on his 
part, he was elected to represent Massachusetts in the lower 
House. In this Congress he made a number of striking 
speeches, as, for example, the one delivered in April, 1824, in 
opposition to a protective tariff measure advocated by Henry 



INTRODUCTION xxxi 

Clay. In support of an administration measure strongly urged 
by President John Quincy Adams, Webster delivered another 
important speech, in which he ably expounded the so-called 
Monroe doctrine. Still, Webster's most valuable work in 
Congress at this time was his carrying through a measure by 
which the whole body of the criminal law of the United States 
was codified, — a measure in the preparation of which he had 
the wise and learned assistance of another great lawyer. Judge 
Story. 

Although during this engrossing period of his life his time 
was laboriously occupied with matters of legislation, his gen- 
eral interest in patriotic subjects continued, and he gave utter- 
ance to eloquent expressions on such topics on several special 
occasions. Four such addresses were delivered in the years 
1820, 1824, 1825, and 1826. On December 22, 1820, three 
days before the anniversary, he delivered a polished oration at 
Plymouth in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary 
of the landing of the Pilgrims. The address was pubhshed 
in 182 1 in Boston. This oration was regarded by Webster's 
contemporaries as the most eloquent address ever spoken 
on the American continent. Later judgment, however, gen- 
erally awards this honor to another speech of Webster's, yet 
without detracting from the eloquence of the Plymouth ora- 
tion. The subject is a sketch of the events that made the 
United States a nation. The broad field chosen by the orator 
was peculiarly adapted to show his remarkable powers of bril- 
liant utterance on national themes. The second of these 
addresses, though not strictly an occasional speech, is interest- 
ing because it shows Webster's love for his own country widen- 
ing to include consideration for the welfare of another land. 
In the same year in which Byron was giving his life for the 
principle of freedom for the Greeks, and only a few years 
before Tennyson hurried to Spain to do what he could in 
aid of revolutionists there, Webster's thoughts also were in- 



xxxu INTRODUCTION 

eluding a far-away nation, though it is not recorded that he 
personally assisted by money or presence, as did Byron and 
Tennyson. At any rate, there was published in Washington 
in 1824, and widely translated soon thereafter in Europe, Web- 
ster's patriotic speech on the Greek Revolution, delivered in 
Congress, January 19, 1824. This eloquent speech was occa- 
sioned by the struggles of the Greeks, and was ostensibly in 
support of Webster's resolution providing for the expenses of 
an American commissioner to Greece, yet it really was an ex- 
position of a broader theme, — the national destiny of the 
United States with regard to other nations. In the words of 
Webster, " I close, then, Sir, with repeating that the object 
of this resolution is to avail ourselves of the interesting occa- 
sion of the Greek Revolution, to make our protest against 
the doctrines of the Allied Powers ; both as they are laid 
down in principle, and as they are applied in practice." The 
third of these occasions was the laying of the corner-stone of 
the Bunker Hill Monument. The oration delivered on June 
17, 1825, needs no comment in this place. It ranks as 
oratory higher than either of the others just mentioned, great 
as they are. The last of the four, the address of 1826, was 
the eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, containing a famous pas- 
sage on eloquence which deserves to be quoted here : '' Clear- 
ness, force, and earnestness are the qualities which produce 
conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in 
speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labor and learn- 
ing may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and 
phrases may be marshaled in every way, but they cannot 
compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in 
the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp 
of declamation, all may aspire to it : they cannot reach it. It 
comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain 
from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with 
spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the 



INTRODUCTION xxxiii 

schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of 
speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives and the 
fate of their wives, their children, and their country hang on 
the decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, 
rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even 
genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the pres- 
ence of higher qualities. Then patriotism is eloquent; then 
self-devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning 
the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the 
dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the 
eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man 
onward, right onward to his object, — this, this is eloquence ; 
or rather it is something greater and higher than all elo- 
quence, — it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action." These 
four representative orations of Webster, then, indicate that in 
the press of legislative duties at this period he still had time 
to continue his interest in broad national themes and to make 
stirring commemorative speeches. 

The ill health of Senator E. H. Mills, of Massachusetts, made 
it necessary for that state to consider who should be chosen as 
his successor. All eyes turned to Webster. When the vacancy 
came, he was elected by the state legislature as senator from 
Massachusetts, and accepted the office in June, 1827. His 
election to the Senate closes the first half of his experience in 
national politics. Under fifty years of age, he was now a leader 
among men prominent in political life. He stood so high in the 
eyes of the people of his time, that if his life had ended then he 
might have been remembered for generations as a great speaker 
on national subjects on special occasions, and as a legislator who 
stood at all times for the unity and progress of his country. 

To the student of the political history of the United States 
Webster's mature years in the Senate and the cabinet furnish 
more elements of interest than anything narrated in the pre- 
ceding sketch ; but to those who are looking at Webster rather 



xxxiv INTRODUCTION 

as the greatest of American commemorative orators, these years 
from 1827 to 1852 are not so important. In short compass, 
the more important facts of Webster's career during these 
years as United States Senator and Secretary of State may be 
related, and the further contributions which he made to ora- 
torical literature may be explained, sufficiently for the purpose in 
mind. The subject divides itself into four headings: i. En- 
trance to Senate and first period there; 2. Secretary of State; 
3. Return to Senate ; 4. Secretary of State the second time. 

During his first period in the Senate (1827-1841), Webster 
won his greatest fame by his celebrated reply to Ilayne. On 
Tuesday and Wednesday, January 26 and 27, 1830, in answer 
to a speech by Mr. Robert Young Hayne, of South Carolina, 
Webster delivered a speech which has probably been more 
often drawn upon for quotations and selected declamations 
than any other American speech. Senator Samuel A. Foote, 
of Connecticut, toward the end of the preceding month, 
had introduced the following seemingly harmless resolution : 
"Resolved, That the Committee on Pubhc Lands be in- 
structed to inquire and report the quantity of pubHc lands 
remaining unsold within each State and Territory, and whether 
it be expedient to limit for a certain period the sales of the 
public lands to such lands only as have heretofore been offered 
for sale, and are now subject to entry at the minimum price. 
And, also, whether the office of surveyor-general, and some of 
the land offices may not be abolished without detriment to the 
public interest." Senator Hayne took occasion to point out 
the hostility of the East to the growing West, shown in Foote's 
resolution. Senator Webster replied, in a strong speech, deny- 
ing that any hostility had been shown to the West. Hayne 
returned to the charge, going afield from the main point at 
issue, and enlarging upon the doctrine that the Federal govern- 
ment is not the exclusive judge of how far the powers of the 
nation extend over the states. Hayne's is by no means an 



INTRODUCTION xxxv 

insignificant speech, for it reads well to-day if one considers 
merely its form and tone. Yet Webster overwhelmed Hayne 
oratorically in a second answer, spoken partly on a Tuesday 
and finished the next day. This speech is the noblest of ex- 
positions of what the Constitution and the Union meant to the 
people of the North and the West in 1830; it is Webster's 
greatest political address. 

Other important speeches of Webster in the Senate at this 
period were those on the constitutionality of the United States 
bank, on the Subtreasury plan, and on the South Carolina 
Ordinance of nullification. 

During this long period in the Senate, Webster was in the 
forefront of every political controversy. However, he found 
time early in his first term to take part in the White murder 
trial, in 1831, making a marvelously vivid argument for the 
prosecution. Toward the end of his first period in the Senate, 
Webster felt the need of rest, and journeyed to England and 
France, where he spent some months in 1839. Two years 
later he resigned from the Senate to enter the cabinet. 

Upon the election of William H. Harrison as President, 
Webster accepted the office of Secretary of State in 1841, and 
held this place in the cabinet through the short, one-month 
term of Harrison and through part of the term of Tyler, until 
May, 1843, when for a year he retired to private life and his law 
practice. The principal diplomatic difficulty that Webster had 
to meet when he was Secretary of State in these administrations 
was the question of the northeastern boundary. There were so 
many complicating features in the international politics of the 
era that it looked as if there would certainly be war ; but Eng- 
land finally sent to the United States as boundary commissioner 
a man who had coolness of judgment and understanding of the 
question. Lord Ashburton. With him Webster arranged a sat- 
isfactory settlement of the trouble. In spite of the great diffi- 
culty in getting the confirmation of the Senate in this country 



xxxvi INTRODUCTION 

and of Parliament in England, Webster and Lord Ashburton 
finally carried the treaty through, and the boundary was thus 
settled without war. This is Webster's most important achieve- 
ment as head of the cabinet during Tyler's term, though he ac- 
quitted himself in statesmanlike fashion in handling several 
minor problems, such as the making of a treaty with Portugal 
and the vindication of the course of the United States in the 
matter of the gaining of independence by Texas. In 1844 
Webster was re-elected Senator from Massachusetts. 

While serving in the Senate again Webster was from time 
to time talked about as a presidential possibility. He was too 
big a man to be President in those days. He was not enough 
of a politician and he was too much of a statesman. There 
were always hindrances in his way at nominating conventions, 
yet he longed to be President. Perhaps it was because of this 
longing that he gradually shifted ground with regard to what 
was now a burning question, slavery. At any rate, though he 
opposed with tremendous force in his earlier speeches, from 
1 819 to about 1840, the principle of slavery and the specific 
extension of it under the Constitution, he came in 1850 to the 
lukewarm attitude which produced the memorable utterance 
known as the Seventh of March Speech. As a party man, he 
had hesitated to put himself at the head of a new party when 
the Whigs with whom he was allied wavered on the question 
of slavery ; yet he was loath to join the Free-Soilers, who were 
more decided in their opposition. Thus, sticking to his party, 
he was led to what men of the North consider his great blun- 
der as a statesman. In his Seventh of March Speech he 
endeavored to win the North to believe that a compromise 
with the South on the question of slavery was for the best inter- 
ests of the nation. He saw that the forces of the two sections 
would clash before long unless matters should be compromised. 
He tried to stem the feeling of the North against the exten- 
sion of -slavery and against the return of fugitive slaves. Since 



INTRODUCTION xxxvil 

he aimed at what is now seen to have been the impossible, he 
failed in this speech to accomplish his object. 

Again Webster resigned from the Senate to become Secre- 
tary of State, this time under President Fillmore. He entered 
the cabinet in July, 1850, at the age of sixty-eight. The best 
of his life was behind him. Still, his great intellectual powers 
were sufficient to enable him to perform the necessary cabinet 
duties with acumen and skill. Several delicate problems re- 
quiring statesmanship of a high order had to be handled at this 
period, such as the unpleasantness with Austria on account of 
the sympathy in the United States for the Hungarian revolu- 
tionist, Kossuth, the correspondence with the English minister 
regarding the neutrality of the proposed Nicaraguan canal, the 
invasion of Cuba in which volunteers from the United States 
took part, bringing about difficulties with Spain almost resulting 
in war, and the disputes with England regarding the fisheries. 
These problems occupied Webster's thoughts and drew from 
him a number of able dispatches in the last summer of his life. 
As a presidential convention approached, his friends again put 
him forward for the nomination, but in the convention he re- 
ceived few votes, so that one more disappointment embittered 
his last year. In May, 1852, he was thrown from his carriage 
while driving near his farm at Marshfield, Massachusetts. To- 
gether with the disease which had already weakened his consti- 
tution, the injury sustained in the fall from his carriage made 
recovery improbable. He lingered on, however, till October 
24, 1852, when he died at three o'clock in the morning at his 
Marshfield home by the sea. His last words of consciousness 
were, " I still live." 

This sentence may be considered prophetic. The greatest 
of American orators, the leader of the Senate for a quarter of a 
century, the lawyer who held the foremost place at the bar for 
over thirty years, and the statesman who during that time 
more than any other statesman, in season and out of season. 



xxxviii INTRODUCTION 

vigorously and skillfully upheld the principle of national unity, 
dignity, and power, Daniel Webster must remain for all years a 
towering personality in American history. One cannot love 
him, because he was too proud. One cannot revere him, be- 
cause he lacked moral strength. Yet one cannot help admiring 
him for his wonderful powers of mind and his transcendent 
genius as an orator. No one can read the polished, perfected 
utterances of Daniel Webster on the destiny of our nation 
without feeling the bright glow of patriotism. His words still 
live. 

QUESTIONS 

1. What is there that is specially significant in Webster's school and 
college life ? 

2. How did he first make his mark in the world ? 

3. What is his most celebrated law case ? 

4. What was his career as a statesman? 

5. What were his most striking characteristics as a man ? 

6. What are some of his great commemorative speeches ? 

The Occasion, the Oration, and the Battle 

As a means of giving one the best appreciation of what 
Daniel Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration is, it is worth 
while to reflect upon matters connected with the delivery of 
the speech, upon the most important characteristics of the 
speaker and his oration, and upon the circumstances of the 
battle commemorated by the monument. 

An Address delivered at the Laying of the Corner Sto?te oj 
the Bunker Hill Monument is the description of the famous 
oration as it appears on the title-page of the first edition, a 
thin octavo volume, published in Boston in 1825, This de- 
scription shows the circumstance which produced the address. 
So early as December, 1794, there had been erected on the 
hill by Masonic brethren of General Joseph Warren, who was 
killed in the conflict, a monument in his honor. Then, some 
twenty years later, a number of patriotic gentlemen of Boston 



INTRODUCTION xxxix 

decided to build a monument to commemorate fittingly the 
battle itself. For this purpose an association was formed, with 
General John Brooks, a Bunker Hill veteran, as the first presi- 
dent. The second president was Daniel Webster. Through 
a great deal of correspondence, the project made considerable 
headway. (See The History of the Bimker Hill Monument 
Association during the First Century of the United States of 
Ajnerica, by George Washington Warren, a copy of which is 
to be found in the building at the base of the monument.) 
The approach of the fiftieth anniversary of the engagement 
seemed a most appropriate time for starting the actual work 
of construction. Moreover, General Lafayette, who was at 
this time making a tour of the states, and was everywhere 
receiving welcome, promised to be present at the laying of the 
corner-stone. The occasion thus became one of national inter- 
est. As president of the association Webster was requested by 
the trustees to make the principal address. 

Invitations to be present were sent to all living veterans who 
had taken part in the battle and to all Revolutionary soldiers 
within reach. Forty of the veterans who fought in the battle 
attended the laying of the corner-stone of the monument, and 
about two hundred other Revolutionary soldiers were also pres- 
ent (Richard Frothingham's History of the Siege of Boston and 
of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Also 
an Account of the Bunker Hill Monumefit). Provision was 
made by the Massachusetts legislature for the payment of the 
expenses of these honored soldiers. Lafayette of course was 
a prominent invited guest. Another guest of distinction was 
the Grand Master of the Free-Masons. There were also in 
attendance delegations from states adjoining Massachusetts, 
from New York and other Middle Atlantic states, and even from 
some of the Southern states, remote as they were before the 
days of express trains. Naturally the citizens of Boston gath- 
ered by thousands to be stirred by the ceremonies ; residents 



xl INTRODUCTION 

who could not get within hearing posted themselves on rooft, 
towers, or heights overlooking the scene. The procession 
started from the State House in Boston early in the morning 
of June 17, a cool, clear day, when the weather was ideal for 
an outdoor programme. The procession marched in the fol- 
lowing order : A military escort, the members of the Bunker 
Hill Monument Association, the brethren of the Masonic 
fraternity in full regalia, Lafayette and other invited guests, 
and a long array of societies with badges and banners. By 
the time the end of the procession was leaving the State House 
the front was almost at Charlestown Bridge. In fact, there 
were twenty thousand spectators gathered at Breed's Hill 
when the ceremonies began. 

The services at Breed's Hill opened with the laying of the 
corner-stone by the Grand Master of the Free-Masons, 
John Abbot, assisted by General Lafayette, who spread the 
cement over the stone. Part of the service consisted of a 
prayer by Rev. Joseph Thaxter, chaplain of Colonel Prescott's 
regiment in 1775, ^^^ ^^^ prayed for the colonial soldiers 
just before the opening of the engagement. There was also 
the reading of an ode by Rev. John Pierpont. In the corner- 
stone were placed five different accounts of the battle, plans 
of the engagement and of Charlestown, an address and letter 
connected with the Monument Association, Edward Everett's 
oration on the Battle of Lexington, specimens of Continental 
currency, coins and medals of the United States, a fragment 
of Plymouth Rock, and copies of the Boston papers published 
during the week of the celebration. Then, on the northern 
slope of the hill, the multitude gathered to hear Webster's 
oration. On the stage with the speaker were the chief guests 
and the Revolutionary soldiers. 

Webster was chosen as the principal speaker, it has been 
intimated above, because he was president of the Bunker Hill 
Monument Association. There were, however, a number of 



INTRODUCTION xll 

other considerations which no doubt determined the selection. 
One reason was, very likely, because it was well understood 
that his physical appearance always commanded the enthu- 
siasm of an audience. When he was speaking he seemed 
eight feet tall ; yet he was only five feet ten. His head was 
like a dome ; his eyes were coals of fire. Carlyle, in a letter 
to Emerson, describes the eyes as " dull black eyes under the 
precipice of brows, like dull anthracite furnaces needing only 
to be blown," and characterizes the mouth as a '' mastiff 
mouth." In 1839, on a visit to Liverpool, Webster was walk- 
ing along the street one day when someone set up the cry, 
"There goes a king," and everybody gazed at Webster in 
wonder. People often called him a god, in their enthusiasm 
at his striking appearance. Again, his voice would carry far in 
the open air. It was a quiet voice, rarely raised to a point 
where the orator seemed exerting himself, yet its carrying 
powers were remarkable. Moreover, it was a pleasing voice, 
one that rested an audience. The tones were sometimes low 
and musical. At times the deep reverberating sounds were 
like " the richness of an organ." In writing of his powers of 
voice and manner as an orator, it is hard to refrain from using 
such words as splendid and magnificent. Why not admit at 
once that the effect was just this? Even when one who has no 
pretensions to oratorical skill reads aloud an oration of Webster 
he finds his voice inevitably expanding, and splendid seems to 
be about the only word that fits what one feels sure must have 
been the manner of Webster in uttering the oration. Webster 
never played the orator, or seemed to be making effort. People 
did not think of the manner of speaking till the address was 
finished. His whole bearing when in repose or action was 
immensely impressive. It is related that he never punished 
his children, as other parents have done ; with him a look of 
reproof was enough, whether he dealt with children or men. 
In his preface to a collection of Webster's masterpieces, the 



xlii INTRODUCTION 

Rev. Mr. Tefft describes the oratory as having been calm, slow, 
dignified, and unambitious, yet direct and powerful. Finally, 
the achievements in oratory which had already given Webster 
a mighty New England reputation were also a consideration 
involved in his selection as orator of the day. The trustees 
confidently counted on his repeating or eclipsing his former 
triumphs at Portsmouth and Plymouth. This expectation 
was fulfilled. 

In the case of a man endowed by nature with such extraor- 
dinary powers of personal magnetism and voice, it might be 
thought that the oration itself would seem insignificant when 
closely examined. Such is not the fact. In his fascinating 
paper, A Trip to England, Goldwin Smith makes the assertion 
that American oratory almost always savors somewhat of the 
school of elocution, and has the fatal drawback of being felt 
to aim at effect. With regard to Webster this would at first 
sight seem to be true, for he unquestionably had great dra- 
matic power. It was said of him early in life that he had in 
him the making of an actor of the first rank. W^hen in his 
reply to Hayne, at the close of his eloquent references to the 
patriotism of Massachusetts, he turned dramatically and faced 
the friends from home, the effect was so great that they " shed 
tears like girls." Yet such acts as these were not mere ora- 
torical tricks; they were an essential accomplishment of the 
man, to get an effect without knowing just how, or caring, and 
without making the hearer conscious that an emotional effect 
was desired. 

The First Bunker Hill Oration is the best example of occa- 
sional oratory. This kind of public speaking has been defined 
as the form of address which takes an anniversary, a great his- 
torical event or character, a celebration, or occasion of any 
sort, as a starting point, and permits close adherence to the 
text or the widest latitude of treatment. The occasional ad- 
dress is sometimes called patriotic oratory when it deals with a 



INTRODUCTION xliii 

great national event. One of the commonest forms of occa- 
sional oration is that which may be called commemorative. 
In prose oral composition, the commemorative oration cor- 
responds to the elegy of written poetical composition, of which 
Lycidas of Milton and hi Memoriam of Tennyson are examples. 
The special difference, besides the difference of prose on the 
one hand and poetry on the other, is that the commemorative 
oration deals principally with events important in a nation's his- 
tory, while the elegy deals with the death of a lamented man 
whose loss gives the poet sorrow. The elegy is fittingly com- 
posed in a churchyard under a centuries-old yew tree ; the 
commemorative oration is produced at its best under the in- 
spiration of the sympathetic presence of throngs of patriots. 
The actual composition may be performed beforehand, as in 
the case of Webster's Bunker HiH, but the first effectiveness 
of the occasional, commemorative oration depends largely on 
the spirit of the hearers assembled for the occasion. In oratory 
of this character the speaker must not resort to mere vague 
generalizations and solemn statements in commonplace form 
of what everyone knows, but he must raise the theme to the 
dignity it deserves. An analysis of the Bunker Hill address 
shows that Webster did not fail on this occasion to meet the 
tests for good commemorative oratory. 

The theme, stated broadly, is the significance of the Battle of 
Bunker Hill to Webster's hearers. A synopsis of the oration, 
section by section, might be made as follows : More important 
in the history of our country and rousing greater feelings in 
men of our day than the discovery of America by Columbus 
or the settlement by English colonists, is the American Revo- 
lution, which we commemorate at a time of extraordinary 
prosperity (p. 23, 1. i-p. 25, 1. 14). A monument, it is true, 
cannot make the knowledge of these historical events more 
wide-spread, yet it can be of use in spreading love of country, 
in reminding all men of the principles of liberty (p. 25, 1. 15- 



xliv INTRODUCTION 

p. 27, 1. 17). Only fifty years from Bunker Hill we have seen 
marvelous changes both in this country and in Europe (p. 27, 
1. 18-p. 28, 1. 33). While we are enjoying this unexampled 
prosperity, we have still among us survivors of the war; to 
you, survivors of Bunker Hill, to you also, unquenchable spirit 
(Warren), who gave up life on this field of war, and to you, 
veterans of half a century, we express our universal gratitude 
(p. 29, 1. i-p. 31,1. 31). Passing over the familiar incidents of 
the battle and the events leading up to it, we notice briefly that 
before the battle there was no strong feeling of unity in the 
colonies or abroad, but that after the battle all stood as a unit, 
shoulder to shoulder, against the mother country (p. 31, 1. 32- 
p. 35, 1. 14). To you, fortunate man (Lafayette), whom the 
news of these events roused to action, and through whom the 
electric spark of liberty was conducted from the New World to 
the Old, we express the happiness which your presence brings 
to us at this scene of commemoration of the deeds of the great 
patriots, and we express the hope that it may be long before 
anyone shall write your eulogy (p. 35, 1. 15-p. 36, 1, 26). 
Invited by the spirit of the occasion to consider the changes of 
the last fifty years in this country and elsewhere, we are im- 
pressed with three features that especially characterize the pres- 
ent age : (a) the vast spread of knowledge ; {^) the improved 
condition of the individual ; (c) the bettering effect of these 
two things on the state of the governments of the world (p. 36, 
1. 27-p. 43, 1. 31). Our duty is to preserve unblemished to 
the world the cheering example of our popular government, 
and to hold sacred the obligations which have devolved on 
this generation (p. 43, 1. 32-p. 45, 1. 30). 

From this analysis it will be seen that no one central theme 
is started at the beginning of the speech and developed sys- 
tematically to the end. Instead, the orator takes up a number 
of items suggested by the nature of the occasion, and eloquently 
discusses each. Intermingled with these reflections are stirring 



INTRODUCTION xlv 

apostrophes to the hero who was first celebrated by a monu- 
ment on the battle site, to the heroes of the battle who were 
present in the audience, and to the distinguished guest from 
abroad. Yet it is evident that a single thought permeates the 
whole address, the thought of the duty of national patriotism, 
as an inheritance from those who made the nation possible. 
Surely in its general construction the speech measures up to 
the best tests of oratory of this character. 

With regard to the details of the construction of the speech 
it may be pointed out that the individual paragraphs are ex- 
cellent rhetorically and have also a genuine oratorical swing. 
Analyzed closely, most of the paragraphs will be found to 
contain a single idea developed thoroughly and consistently. 
Examine, for instance, the last paragraph of the oration, and 
observe how closely and energetically the speaker dwells on 
the idea of the duty of the men of 1825 in the carrying on 
of the free government established by their forefathers. The 
continuity of the thought, too, is admirable. From sentence 
to sentence the paragraph idea runs on to a forcible and effec- 
tive final statement in the last sentence. 

But the rhetorical analysis of the thought, revealing as it does, 
almost always, paragraph unity and continuity, scarcely reveals 
the spirited oratorical swing of the paragraphs. To feel this 
oratorical fervor is easier than to understand how it is gained, for 
there is always the element of emotion in utterances such as 
these. The gathering of groups of two or three or four similar 
phrases into a sentence, the repeating of the same form of sen- 
tence structure through a long series of sentences (see page 
26), the modulation of effect by varying the sentence length, 
and the selection of strong Saxon words help in producing the 
oratorical tone. One can appreciate the speech fairly well 
through detailed examination of the paragraphs in order to 
discover these devices. Such a study is bound to reveal some- 
thing of the secret of the orator, but from the very nature of 



xlvi INTRODUCTION 

the address cannot be expected to bring one a complete under- 
standing. This commemorative oration is pre-eminently one to 
be felt and enjoyed through oral interpretation leading to an 
increasing sense of the patriotic duties of the present genera- 
tion. A genuine thrill of devotion to country roused by the 
speech will be of more value than anything else to be gained 
from its painstaking study, and will on the whole give one a 
better conception of the true significance of the orator's effort 
and its true place in the field of commemorative oratory. 

Webster takes for granted a knowledge in his hearers of the 
incidents of the battle. He says, on page 31, "The occasion 
does not require of me any particular account of the battle 
of the 17th of June, nor any detailed narrative of the events 
which immediately preceded it." In the four following para- 
graphs, however, he does give a narrative of the events which 
preceded the battle. He tells how Massachusetts had been 
singled out by the English government as an object for severe 
punishment, and he explains the effect upon that colony and 
neighboring colonies of this severity of treatment. He points 
out how the clash at Lexington and Concord accentuated the 
bitter feeling of resistance and brought the united New Eng- 
land colonies to the next field of battle. So much, in brief, 
he tells of the events preceding the battle. 

Still, he neglects to give many incidents of the fight, assuming 
a knowledge of these. Seven years before the time of his speech 
he pubhshed, in the North Ainerican Review (July, 181 8), a 
glowing description of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Unfortu- 
nately most students nowadays do not seem to have the 
knowledge which Webster takes for granted. Let us there- 
fore start with the specific references which are made by the 
speaker in his oration and then gather together a few other 
items to give a connected idea of the contest. On page 29, 
lines 9-16, Webster says to the venerable warriors, "You see 
no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning 



INTRODUCTION xlvii 

Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead and the 
dying ; the impetuous charge ; the steady and successful re- 
pulse ; the loud call to repeated assault ; the summoning of all 
that is manly to repeated resistance ; a thousand bosoms freely 
and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror may 
be in war and death ; — all these you have witnessed, but you 
witness them no more." He then calls his venerable auditors' 
attention to the fact that the towers and roofs of Boston are 
now filled with the whole happy population, instead of with 
terrified wives and children, and to the fact that the ships in 
the Navy Yard at the base of the hill are the nation's, that they 
are not hostile sloops of war as on the day of the conflict. 
These details, it will be observed, are mostly oratorical general- 
izations ; at most battles there is the impetuous charge and the 
summoning of manly courage to vigorous resistance. The only 
specific details are regarding the onlookers and the fleet. 
Again, there is a reference to the event on page 29, line 34, 
when the orator says that he looks in vain in the audience for 
Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Read, Pomeroy, and Bridge, a 
great muster roll of names possessing for those who know the 
details of the battle something of the wonderful effect described 
by Macaulay as belonging to the catalogue of names in Milton's 
epic. Again, on page 36, Hnes 2-7, in the personal words to 
Lafayette, comes another reference, the most specific and def- 
inite contained in the speech. "You see the lines of the little 
redoubt thrown up by the incredible diligence of Prescott ; de- 
fended, to the last extremity, by his lion-hearted valor ; and 
within which the corner stone of our monument has now taken 
its position. You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, 
Gardner, McCleary, Moore, and other early patriots fell with 
him." Here, as before, the definiteness is largely that of a roll- 
call of honor, though the part taken by Prescott is mentioned 
specifically. The " Httle " redoubt, in a historical rather than an 
oratorical narrative, would be described as '' eight rods square " 



xlviii INTRODUCTION 

(Bancroft). With these three references, the details supplied 
by Webster stop. The account in his oration delivered 17 
June, 1843, upon the completion of the monument, is also 
oratorical in its character, omitting specific historical details. 
Let us therefore go to Bancroft and Frothingham, the histori- 
ans, for a connected, definite account of the contest. 

The topography ^ of the battle ground is important to under- 
stand if one would grasp the essential facts of the contest. 
Richard Frothingham, in his centennial Battle of Bunker Hill ^ 
1875, gives at page 15 an admirable diagram of the region. 
In the same author's pamphlet entitled The Battle-field of 
Bunker Hill, published in 1876, the frontispiece is an excel- 
lently clear engraving of early Charlestown. On a narrow 
peninsula north of Boston and separated from it by the Charles 
River, half a mile wide, was the village of Charlestown. The 
other side of the peninsula was bounded by the Mystic River. 
These elements in the situation are still about the same. There 
have been changes, however, in the hillsides, which, owing to 
the growth of Charlestown, do not retain their original contour. 
Just back of Charlestown was Breed's Hill, about seventy-five 
feet high. Beyond it, close to the neck of the peninsula, was 
a higher summit. Bunker Hill, a hundred and ten feet high. 
The ground sloped gradually down from Bunker Hill, then rose 
into Breed's Hill. It was difficult to tell just where one hill 
stopped and the other began. From Breed's Hill to the 

1 There is much confusion about the topography. Maps in popular 
histories differ widely. In the long list of nearly contemporary accounts, 
also, cited by Frothingham in his History of the Siege of Boston, there is 
much diversity of statement regarding the topographical features. Some 
of the accounts call the hill just back of Charlestown Bunker's Hill, and 
the one farther northwest, near the mouth of the peninsula, Breed's Hill ; 
some call the hill back of the town Charlestown Hill. The map by a 
British officer appearing in Frothingham's History shows Bunker's Hill 
to have been directly back of Charlestown; but the account by the Com- 
mittee of Safety, July 25, 1775, explicitly names the hill nearest the 
isthmus as Bunker Hill, and the one nearest Boston as Breed's Hill. 



INTRODUCTION xlix 

Charles River the descent was much sharper than it was on 
the other side. The two hills overlooked the whole region 
of Charlestovvn and Boston and the harbor. General Gage, 
leader of the British forces at Boston, planned to extend his 
fortifications to include these two strategic positions. The 
Massachusetts committee of safety determined to get ahead 
of the British commander. From this circumstance arose 
the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

Colonel William Prescott, who volunteered for the work of 
fortification, was selected by the committee, and was put in 
command of a brigade of one thousand men. With an engineer 
named Grindley and this brigade, consisting of men of his own 
regiment and several detachments under Colonel Ebenezer 
Bridge, Major John Brooks, and other leaders, Prescott, pro- 
vided with suitable intrenching tools, started silently on the 
evening of June i6 from Cambridge. They were raw soldiers, 
dressed in farmers' garb or the hunting-shirt of the frontiers- 
man, volunteers armed mostly with fowling-pieces, without 
bayonets; men enlisted recently and coming from different 
Massachusetts and Connecticut regiments. The final instruc- 
tions received were to fortify Breed's Hill, as being nearer 
Boston. Accordingly, it was there that Prescott and his men 
threw up a sod redoubt that night. It was on Breed's Hill that 
the brunt of the British attack fell ; it was there that the most 
celebrated acts of valor were performed ; and it is this hill, 
instead of Bunker Hill, that is now crowned by the monument. 
Prescott's work of fortification was not noticed by the British 
vessels at anchor in the Charles River. Next morning, how- 
ever, the cannon of the British ship-of-war " Lively," which 
had lain unsuspectingly at anchor during the night in the ferry- 
way between Boston and Charlestown, opened fire on the 
redoubt. The people of Boston and the soldiers of England 
were alike puzzled by the unexpected appearance of a redoubt 
on Breed's Hill. A battery was soon bombarding the new 

d 



1 INTRODUCTION 

redoubt from Copp's Hill, across the Charles River, in Boston. 
Some time after noon, more than two thousand British troops 
under Major General Howe and Brigadier General Pigot were 
transported to the north side of the peninsula, along which 
runs the Mystic River, to attack the colonial soldiers. 

The news of the threatened attack brought reenforcements 
to Prescott, including Stark's and Reed's New Hampshire regi- 
ments, and a number of individuals who went on their own 
account, without orders, from Boston and Cambridge. Old 
General Seth Pomeroy was one of those who went from Bos- 
ton; he was heartily cheered as he took his place with the 
rest, and he fought with the troops until the retreat, at the end 
animating the younger men with his shattered musket (Froth- 
ingham's Battle of B mike r Hill). Dr. Joseph Warren, presi- 
dent of Congress and provincial major general, was another, 
from Cambridge. In refusing to heed the entreaties of a friend 
who urged him to remain at home, Warren exclaimed, as we 
now know prophetically, Duke et decorum est pro patria fnori, 
"It is sweet and becoming to die for one's country" {Life of 
Joseph Warren^ page 510, by Richard Frothingham). Gen- 
eral Warren, whose " heroic soul elicited a kindred fire from 
the troops," was the last to leave the trenches when the colo- 
nists retreated from the redoubt on Breed's Hill, and he fell 
mortally wounded about sixty yards from the redoubt. 

The contest which thus ended in retreat and the death of an 
intrepid and cultured volunteer, was fought with military pre- 
cision by the veteran British soldiers and with patriotic stub- 
bornness and valor by the colonists. The battery on Copp's 
Hill carried out Gage's threat made previously, and threw 
shells that set fire to the six hundred dwelling-houses, stores, 
and warehouses of Charlestown (G. W. Warren's History of 
the Bu7iker Hill Monument Association). Then the British 
forces, twenty-five hundred strong, which had landed on the 
Mystic side of the peninsula, began their advance. One 



INTRODUCTION li 

column headed for the redoubt, the other for a harmless-looking 
rail fence stretching down from the redoubt toward the Mystic 
River. The fifteen hundred Americans were so placed on the 
peninsula in various positions — behind the rail fence, pro- 
tected by a natural trench, on the summit of Bunker Hill, and 
in the Breed's Hill redoubt — that they were able to kill or 
wound a third of the forces opposed to them. At the order 
of Prescott and Putnam, in different parts of the battle field, 
the inexperienced colonial troops held their fire till the enemy 
were less than two hundred feet away, and sometimes less than 
sixty. The result of such deliberate and deadly firing was dis- 
astrous to the attacking force, which was twice repulsed. 
About four o'clock in the afternoon, after two hours of hot 
fighting, Prescott gave the order to retreat, himself parrying 
the bayonet strokes of oncoming veterans till his coat was 
slit in many places. Breaking through the enemy's attack 
promiscuously, most of the seven hundred who had been in 
the redoubt escaped, assisted in their retreat by the valiant 
soldiers at the rail fence who had twice repulsed the attacks 
from their side. Altogether, according to General Ward, one 
hundred and fifteen of the American soldiers were killed, 
and three hundred and five wounded ; thirty were captured. 
Among the dead should be especially mentioned, besides 
Warren, Major Willard Moore, who was twice wounded, yet 
would not give up till his death ; Thomas Gardner, of Cam- 
bridge, a member of Congress, killed by a random shot as 
he was descending Bunker Hill ; Major Andrew McCleary, a 
brave, athletic New Hampshire farmer, six feet and a half 
tall, hit by a chance cannon ball at the isthmus joining the 
peninsula to the mainland ; and Lieutenant Colonel Moses 
Parker, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, who was wounded and 
taken prisoner, and who died in the Boston jail after the 
amputation of his leg. These details of the engagement will 
help to make plain Webster's references in his oration, so that 



Hi INTRODUCTION 

further biographical or historical explanations may be dis- 
pensed with in the notes. 

By the battle the British gained a place of encampment, but 
the colonists gained the sympathy and support of all the other 
colonists oi America, and astonished their foes. The issue of 
The Massachusetts Spy, or Atnerican Oracle of Liberty^ that 
appeared on June 21, 1 775, concluded its account of the battle 
with the statement that though the scene was altogether new 
and horrible to the colonial volunteers, nevertheless they stood, 
many of them, and received numerous wounds before they 
quitted their lines ; and four days after the battle they were 
all in high spirits. Franklin, impressed with this extraordinary 
showing of poorly equipped, ill- drilled patriots against veteran 
soldiers and celebrated generals, wrote confidently not long 
after the contest, " England has lost her colonies forever." 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS ON WASHINGTON'S ADDRESS 

1. Some of the principal items that Hamilton felt ought to be included 
in the proposed address are : 

(a) The Union as the rock of their salvation. 

{b) Fitness of the parts of the Union for each other. 

if) The cherishing of the actual government. 

{d) Morals, religion, industry, commerce, economy. 

{e) The cherishing of good faith, justice, and peace with all other 
nations. 

(/) A rule to have as little connection as possible with foreign 
nations. 

Do these items include all the principal topics which Washington elab- 
orated in his final form of the address t 

2. Was the Farewell Address prepared to be spoken ,'' 

3. Does any part of the document seem eloquent .? 

4. To what extent does this state paper appear to you to reveal the 
character of Washington ? 

5. " The richest heritage that has come down to us from the Fathers 
of the Republic." 

6. {a) In the notes on pages 1-9 is there any material that you knew 
already ? 



INTRODUCTION liii 

(d) Would you omit anything in the notes on these paragraphs if 
you were preparing annotative aids ? 

(c) Would you add anything ? 

7. Make a study of the sentence length in the address by actual count, 
finding in each paragraph how many sentences there are under thirty 
words in length compared with the number over thirty words in length. 

8. (a) Do you consider the paragraphs mostly long or mostly short ? 

(d) What is your standard for length ? 

9. (a) Mention the principal propositions which Washington dis- 
cusses, and reproduce his arguments on each proposition. 

(d) Should you call the address mainly expository or mainly argu- 
mentative ? 

ID. The salutation. 

11. It has been said that the public addresses and state papers of 
Washington have much of the balancing of effects in the arrangement of 
series of clauses characteristic of the writings of Samuel Johnson, who 
was a model for many eighteenth-century authors. Where do you find 
in the Farewell Address any examples illustrating this characteristic .-' 

12. Give Washington's expansion of three of the leading sentiments 
which he wished to impress upon the American people. 

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS ON WEBSTER'S ORATION 

I. Criticise the following topical outline of Webster's oration : 

[a) Comparative importance of the event commemorated. 

(b) Aim of the Society in building the monument. 
{c) Abstract of happenings since the battle. 

[d) Address to soldiers. 

(^) The effect of the battle. 

(/) Address to Lafayette. 

{g) Character of the present age. 

\h) Our duties as citizens of the foremost republican nation. 

2. Make a detailed topical outline containing three main divisions ; 
Introduction, Body, and Conclusion, and a number of further divisions 
under these main headings. 

3. Give the substance of Webster's address to the soldiers of the war. 
[You will probably be able to tell this best if you will pretend for the 
time being that you are Webster and that you are speaking in the first 
person directly to the old soldiers.] 

4. The object of the monument, as explained by Webster. 

5. Show what the Battle of Bunker Hill accomplished. 

6. Name and fully explain the figures of speech on page 39, lines 5-12, 



liv INTRODUCTION 

7. Discuss page 43, line 32-page 44, line 9, with regard to unity and 
coherence. 

8. Reproduce Webster's views on the relation of knowledge to liberty. 

9. Show how the third sentence is necessary to the successful devel- 
opment of the central idea in the fourth paragraph. 

10. Commit to memory the selection from Webster found on page 
xxxii. 

11. Read the whole oration aloud, at one time or at different times, 
and make a record of how long it took you to read each main division. 
[The main divisions can easily be distinguished not only by the thought 
but by the extra space between these divisions. As readers use different 
rates of speed, the answers will probably differ widely.] 

12. Prepare to speak an oratorical paragraph on some subject interest- 
ing to yourself and probably interesting to the rest of the class. 

13. What impression did Webster make on American history ? 

14. As an orator, did Webster influence the speakers of his or any 
following generation to an appreciable degree ? 

15. Are the characteristics of true eloquence as explained by Webster 
to be found in his own Bunker Hill Oration ? 

16. Are there any touches of argumentation in Webster's address ? 

17. Using material found in this book or found by yourself elsewhere, 
write what would seem to you a satisfactory set of notes for pages 
23-28. 

18. Are the Washington and Webster addresses which appear in this 
volume literature ? 

BOOKS ON WASHINGTON AND WEBSTER 

1. Biographies of Washington and Webster, by H. C. Lodge, in 
American Statesmen Series. 

2. The True George Washington, by P. L. Ford. 

3. The Life of Daniel Webster, by G. T. Curtis. 

4. The Writings of Washington, edited by Jared Sparks and by 
W'. C. Ford, and The Works of Daniel Webster, published by Little and 
Brown, 1851, and including a Biographical Memoir by Edward Everett. 



• / 



WASHINGTON'S 
FAREWELL ADB^E&i 

To the PEOPLE of the United States: 



Friends and Fellow- Citizens, 

The period for a new election of a Citizen, to administer 
the executive government of the United States, being not far 
distant, and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must 
be employed in designating the person, who is to be cloathed 
with that important trust, it appears to me proper, espe- 5 
cially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the 
public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution 
I have formed, to decline being considered among the number 
of those, out of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be 10 
assured, that this resolution has not been taken, without a strict 
regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation, 
which binds a dutiful citizen to his country ; and that, in with- 
drawing the tender of service which silence in my situation 
might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for 15 
your future interest ; no deficiency of grateful respect for your 
past kindness ; but am supported by a full conviction that the 
step is compatible with both. 

--> The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the office 
to which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a 20 
uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and 
to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I con- 
stantly hoped, that it would have been much earlier in my 
power, consistently with motives, which I was not at liberty to 



2 WASHINGTON'S 

disregard, to return to that retirement, from which I had been 
reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, 
previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation 
of an address to declare it to you ; but mature reflection on 

5 the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with 
foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled 
to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, external as well as 
internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inchnation incom- 

lo patible with the sentiment of duty, or propriety ; and am 
persuaded whatever partiality may be retained for my services, 
that in the present circumstances of our country, you will not 
disapprove my determination to retire. 

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous 

15 trust, were explained on the proper occasion. In the dis- 
charge of this trust, I will only say, that I have with good 
intentions, contributed towards the organization and adminis- 
tration of the government, the best exertions of which a very 
fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in the out 

20 set, of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my 
own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strength- 
ened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the 
encreasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that 
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be wel- 

25 come. Satisfied that i_f any circumstances have given peculiar 
value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consola- 
tion to believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to 
/ quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to 

30 terminate the career of my public life, my feeHngs do not 
permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt 
of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the 
many honours it has conferred upon me ; still more for the 
stedfast confidence with which it has supported me ; and for 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 3 

the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my 
inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, 
though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have re- 
sulted to our country from these services, let it always be 
remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in 5 
our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, 
agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst 
appearances sometimes dubious, — vicissitudes of fortune often 
discouraging, — in situations in which not unfrequently want 
of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism — the con- 10 
stancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, 
and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. — 
Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me 
to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that 
Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its benefi- 15 
cence — that your union and brotherly affection may be per- 
petual — that the free constitution, which is the work of your 
hands, may be sacredly maintained — that its administration 
in every department may be stamped with wisdom and vir- 
tue — that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, 20 
under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so 
careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as 
will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the ap- 
plause, the affection and adoption of every nation which is yet 
a stranger to it. 25 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your 
welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehen- 
sion of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me on an occa- 
sion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, 
and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments, 30 
which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable 
observation, and which appear to me all important to the per- 
manency of your felicity as a People. These will be offered 
to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them 



4 WASHINGTON'S 

the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly 
have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I for- 
get, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my 
sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 
5 Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of 
your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify 
or confirm the attachment. 

V The Unity of Government which constitutes you one peo- 
ple, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main 

10 pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of 
your tranquility at home, your peace abroad ; of your safety ; 
of your prosperity ; of that very Liberty which you so highly 
prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from different causes 
and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many 

15 artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of 
this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against 
which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be 
most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidi- 
ously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should 

20 properly estimate the immense value of your national Union, 
to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should 
cherish a cordial, habitual and immoveable attachment to it ; 
accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the 
Palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for 

25 its preservation with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing what- 
ever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be 
abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning 
of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from 
the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together 

30 the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and in- 
terest. Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, 
that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The 
name of American, which belongs to you, in your national 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 5 

capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more 
than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With 
slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, man- 
ners, habits and political principles. You have in a common 
cause fought and triumphed together ; the Independence and 5 
Liberty you possess are the work of joint councils, and joint 
efforts, of common dangers, sufferings and successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully they address 
themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those 
which apply more immediately to your interest. — Here every 10 
portion of our country finds the most commanding motives 
for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of the whole. 

The No7'th^ in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, 
protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds " 
in the productions of the latter, great additional resources of 15 
maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of 
manufacturing industry. — The South in the same intercourse, 
benefitting by the Agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow 
and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own chan- 
nels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation 20 
invigorated ; — and while it contributes, in different ways, to 
nourish and increase the general mass of the national naviga- 
tion, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, 
to which itself is unequally adapted. — The East, in a like in- 
tercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive 25 
improvement of interior communications, by land and water, 
will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities 
which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. — The 
West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth 
and comfort — and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, 30 
it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable 
outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and 
the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, 
directed by an indissoluble ucommunity of interest as one 



6 WASHINGTON'S 

nation. — Any other tenure by which the JVes t ca.n hold this 
essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate 
strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with 
any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. 
5 While then every part of our country thus feels an imme- 
diate and particular interest in Union, all the parts combined 
cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts 
greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater se- 
curity from external danger, a less frequent interruption of 

lo their peace by foreign nations ; — and what is of inestimable 
value ! they must derive from Union an exemption from 
those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently 
afflict neighbouring countries, not tied together by the same 
government ; which their own rivalships alone would be suffi- 

15 cient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attach- 
ments and intrigues would stimulate and imbitter. — Hence 

, hkewise they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown mili- 
tary establishments, which under any form of government are 
inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as par- 

20 ticularly hostile to Republican Liberty. In this sense it is, that 
your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your 
liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you 
the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every 

25 reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of 
the Union as a primary object of Patriotic desire. — Is there a 
doubt, whether a common government can embrace so large a 
sphere ? — Let experience solve it. To listen to mere specula- 
tion in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope 

30 that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary 
agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will 
afford a happy issue to the experiment. 'T is well worth a 
fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious 
motives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, while 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 7 

experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, 
there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those, 
who in any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, 
It occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground should 5 
have been furnished for characterising parties by Geographical 
discriminations — Noi^thern and Southe7"n — Atlantic and West- 
erfi ; whence designing men may endeavour to excite a belief 
that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One 
of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within par- 10 
ticular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of 
other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against 
the jealousies and heart burnings which spring from these mis- 
representations : they tend to render alien to each other those 
who ought to be bound together by fraternal affectionNY The 15 
inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful les- 
son on this head : they have seen, in the negociation by the 
Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of 
the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that 
event, throughout the United States, a decisive proof how 20 
unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a 
policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States 
unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi : they 
have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with 
Great Britain and that with Spain, which secure to them every 25 
thing they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, 
towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their 
wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the 
Union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth 
be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever 30 
them from their Brethren and connect them with aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a govern- 
ment for the whole is indispensable. — No alliances, however 
strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute ; they 



8 WASHINGTON'S 

must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions 
which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible 
of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first 
essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better 

5 calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for 
the efficacious management of your common concerns. This 
Government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and 
miawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature delibera- 
tion, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its 

lo powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within 
itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to 
your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, 
compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are 
duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true Liberty. 

15 The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to 
make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. — But, 
the Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an 
explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly ob- 
ligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right 

20 of the people to establish government presupposes the duty 
of every individual to obey the established Government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combi- 
nations and associations, under whatever plausible character, 
with the real design to direct, controul, counteract, or awe the 

25 regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, 
are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal 
tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an arti- 
ficial and extraordinary force — to put in the place of the dele- 
gated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but 

30 artful and enterprizing minority of the community ; and, ac- 
cording to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make 
the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and 
incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of con- 
sistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils, and 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 9 . 

modified by mutual interests. However combinations or asso- 
ciations of the above description may now and then answer 
popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things 
to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and 
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the 5 
people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government ; 
destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them 
to unjust dominion. ^ 
y ^ Towards the preservation of your government, and the per- 
manency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only 10 
that you speedily discountenance irregular oppositions to its 
acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the 
spirit of innovation upon its principles however specious the 
pretexts. — One method of assault may be to effect in the forms 
of the constitution alterations which will impair the energy of 
the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly 
overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, 
remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix 
the true character of governments, as of other human institu- 
tions — that experience is the surest standard, by which to test 2 
the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country — 
that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis, and-.,, 
opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety 
of hypothesis and opinion ; and remember, especially, that for 
the efficient management of your common interests, in a 25 
country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigour [ 
as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty, is indispen- 
sable. /Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers I 
properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, 
indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too 30 
feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each 
member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, 
and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the 
rights of person and property. 



> 



%^ 



lO WASHINGTON'S 

/Cl have already intimated to you, the danger of parties in 
tlie state, with particular reference to the founding of them 
on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more 
comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn 
5 manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, 
generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, hav- 
ing its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. — It 
exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less 
10 stifled, controuled, or repressed; but in those of the popular 
form, it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst 
enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, 
sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissention, 
15 which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most 
horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. — But this leads 
at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. — The 
disorders and miseries, which result, gradually inchne the minds 
of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an 
20 individual : and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing fac- 
tion more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns 
this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the 
^ ruins of Public Liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which 

^25" nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight) the common 

and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to 

make it the interest and duty of a wise People to discourage 

and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble 
30 the Public Administration. It a gitate s the Community with 
ill founded jealousies and false alarms ; kindles the animosity 
of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and in- 
surrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corrup- 
tion, which find a tacilitated access to the government itself 



/' 



FAREWELL ADDRESS II 

through the channels of party passions. Thus the pohcy and 
the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of 
another. 

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful 
checks upon the administration of the Government, and serve 5 
to keep alive the spirit of Liberty.^ This within certain limits 
is probably true ; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, 
Patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favour upon 
the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in 
Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. 10 
From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be 
enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there 
being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force 
of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be 
quenched ; it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its burst- 15 
ing into flame, lest, instead of warming it should consume. f( 

It is important likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free ' 
country, should inspire caution, in those entrusted with its 
administration, to confine themselves within their respective 
constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers 20 
of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of 
encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the depart- 
ments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of govern- 
ment, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, 
and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human 25 
heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. 
The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political 
power ; by dividing and distributing it into different deposito- 
ries, and constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal 
against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experi- 30 
ments ancient and modern : some of them in our country and 
under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary 
as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the People, the dis- 
tribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in 



12 WASHINGTON'S 

any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment 
in the way which the constitution designates. — But let there 
be no change by usurpation ; for though this, in one instance, 
may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by 
I 5 which free governments are destroyed. — The precedent must 
j[ always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or 
M transient benefit which the use can at any time yield. 
/ /\ Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political 
prosperity. Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. 
10 — In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, 
who should labour to subvert these great pillars of human 
happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citi- 
zens. — The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought 
to respect and to cherish them. — A volume could not trace 
15 all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it 
simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputa- 
tion, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the 
oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of 
Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, 
20 that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever 
may be conceded to the influence of refined education on 
minds of peculiar structure ; reason and experience both for- 
bid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion 
\ of religious principle. 

^125 'T is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary 
spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with 
more or less force to every species of free government. Who 
that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon 
attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? 
30 Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institu- 
tions for the general diffusion of knowledge. — In proportion 
as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, 
it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. 
• As a very important source of strength and security cherish 



\ 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 13 

public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as 
sparingly as possible ; avoiding occasions of expence by culti- 
vating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements » 
to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater dis- u 
bursements to repel it ; avoiding likewise the accumulation of 5 
debt, not only by shunning occasions of expence, but by vig- 
orous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which 
unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously 
throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought 
to bear. — The execution of these maxims belongs to your rep- 10 
resentatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should 
co-operate. — To facihtate to them the performance of their 
duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind, » 
that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue ; y 
that to have Revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes can 15 
be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and un- 
pleasant ; that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from 
the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice 
of difficulties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid con- 
struction of the conduct of the government in making it, and 20 
for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining 
Revenue which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. 
^(Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations, culti- 
vate peace and harmony with all ; / Rehgion and Morality 
enjoin this conduct ; and can it be tliat good policy does not 25 
equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, 
at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the 
magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided 
by an exalted justice and benevolence. . Who can doubt that 
/^^' in the course of time and things the fruits of such a plan would 30 
?jl r. richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by 
a steady adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not 
connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue? 
The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment 



14 WASHINGTON'S 

which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it rendered impossible 
by its vices? 
i^^jTijrin the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential 
than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular 
5 Nations, and passionate attachments for others should be 
excluded ; and that in place of them just and amicable feelings 
towards all should be cultivated. The Nation, which indulges 
towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is 
in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its 

10 affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its 
duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another 
disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold 
of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, 
when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence 

15 frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed and bloody contests. 
The Nation, prompted by ill will and resentment, sometimes 
impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calcula- 
tions of policy. The Government sometimes participates in 
the national propensity, and adopts through passion what 

20 reason would reject ; at other times, it makes the animosity of 
the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by 
pride, ambition and other sinister and pernicious motives. 
The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations 
has been the victim. 

25 So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for an- 
other produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favourite 
Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common inter- 
est, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing 
into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a 

30 participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without 
adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to con- 
cessions to the favourite Nation of privileges denied to others, 
which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the conces- 
sions ; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been 



FAREWELL ADDRESS IS 

retained ; and by exciting jealousy, ill will, and a disposition to 
retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are with- 
held. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens 
(who devote themselves to the favourite nation) facility to 
betray, or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without 5 
odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding with the 
appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation a commendable 
deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, 
the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption or 
infatuation. 10 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such 
attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened 
and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they 
afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the- arts 
of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the 15 
Pubhc Councils ! Such an attachment of a small or weak, 
towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be 
the satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure 
you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people 20 
ought to be constantly awake ; since history and experience 
prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of 
Republican Government. But that jealousy to be useful must 
be impartial ; else it becomes the instrument of the very influ- 
ence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. — Ex- 25 
cessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike 
of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only 
on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of 
influence on the other. — Real patriots, who may resist the 
intrigues of the favourite, are liable to become suspected and 30 
odious ; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and con- 
fidence of the people, to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign na- 
tions, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with 



l6 WASHINGTON'S 

them as little political connection as possible. So far as we 
have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with 
perfect good faith. — Here let us stop. 
^ i% Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, 

rf ox a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in 
frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially 
foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise 
in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary 
vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and 

lo coUisions of her friendships, or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to 
pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an 

•f efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may 

I defy material injury from external annoyance ; when we may 

1 5 take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality, we may at 
any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when 
belligerent nations, under the impossibiUty of making acqui- 

,, sitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provoca- 

.„ tion ; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, 
1 20 guided by justice, shall counsel. 

f s f Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? Why 
K quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by inter- 

1 ' weaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle 
our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, 
■ 25 rivalship, interest, humour or caprice? 

r; 'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alhances, 
with any portion of the foreign world ; so far, I mean, as we 
are now at liberty to do it ; for let me not be understood as 
capable of patronising infidelity to existing engagements. I 

30 hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private 
affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, 
therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine 
sense. But in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be 
unwise to extend them. 



i 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 1/ 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establish- I 
merits, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust L 
to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. 
. Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recom- 
mended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our 5 
commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand ; 
neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or preferences ; 
consulting the natural course of things ; diffusing and diversi- 
fying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing 
nothing ; establishing, with powers so disposed — in order to 10 
give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, 
and to enable the government to support them — conven- 
tional rules of intercourse, the best that present circum- 
stances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and 
liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experi- 15 
ence and circumstances shall dictate ; constantly keeping in 
view, that 't is folly in one nation to look for disinterested 
favours from another ; that it must pay with a portion of its 
independence for whatever it may accept under that charac- 
ter ; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condi- 20 
tion of having given equivalents for nominal favours, and yet 
of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. 
There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate 
upon real favours from nation to nation. 'T is an illusion which 
experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 25 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old 
and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the \ 
strong and lasting impression I could wish ; that they will 
controul the usual current of the passions, or prevent our 
nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the 30 
destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself, that they 
may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional 
good ; that they may now and then recur to moderate the 



l8 WASHINGTON'S 

fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign 
intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriot- 
1 ism ; this hope will be a full recompence for the solicitude for 
\ your welfare, by which they have been dictated. 
5 How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have been 
guided by the principles which have been delineated, the pub- 
lic records and other evidences of my conduct must witness 
to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own 
conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided 
10 by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Proc- 
lamation of the 22nd of April 1793 is the index to my Plan. 
Sanctioned by your approving voice and by that of your 
Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that 
15 measure has continually governed me; uninfluenced by any 
attempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination with the aid of the best lights I 
could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all 
the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was 
20 bound in duty and interest, to take a neutral position. Hav- 
ing taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, 
to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to hold this 

conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I 

25 will only observe, that according to my understanding of the 

matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the 

Belligerent Powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 

^^ The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, 

^ without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and 

30 humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free 

to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity 

towards other nations. 

t, The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will 
best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 19 

me, a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time 
to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institu- 
tions, and to progress without interruption, to that degree of 
strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly 
speaking, the command of its own fortunes. 5 

Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I 
am unconscious of intentional error : I am nevertheless too 
sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may 
have committed many errors. Whatever they may be I fer- 
vently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to 10 
which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope 
that my Country will never cease to view them with indul- 
gence ; and that after forty-five years of my life dedicated to ' 
its service, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent 
abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be 15 
to the mansions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and 
actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to 
a man, who views in it the native soil of himself and his pro- 
genitors for several generations ; I anticipate with pleasing 20 
expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, 
without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst 
of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws under 
a free government — the ever favourite object of my heart, 
and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours 25 
and dangers. 

G. WASHINGTON. 

United States, 17th September, 1796. 



AN 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE LAYING OF THE 



Corner ^tone 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 



BY DAKIEL WEBSTER. 



BOSTON : 

PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS, HILLIARD, AND COMPANY. 

1825. 




DANIEL WEBSTER 

( After a daguerreotype ) 



22 



WEBSTER'S 
FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 



This uncounted multitude before me, and around me, proves 
the feeling which the occasion has excited. These thousands of 
human faces, glowing with sympathy and joy, and, from the im- 
pulses of a common gratitude, turned reverently to heaven, in 
this spacious temple of the firmament, proclaim that the day, 5 
the place, and the purpose of our assembling have made a 
deep impression on our hearts. 

If, indeed, there be any thing in local association fit to 
affect the mind of man, we need not strive to repress the emo- 
tions which agitate us here. We are among the sepulchres of 10 
our fathers. We are on ground, distinguished by their valor, 
their constancy, and the shedding of their blood. We are 
here, not to fix an uncertain date in our annals, nor to draw 
into notice an obscure and unknown spot. If our humble pur- 
pose had never been conceived, if we ourselves had never been 15 
born, the 17th of June 1775 would have been a day on which 
all subsequent history would have poured its light, and the emi- 
nence where we stand, a point of attraction to the eyes of suc- 
cessive generations. But we are Americans. We live in what 

Note. — As the pupil reads the oration through for the first time to get 
the author's meaning, he should, if he owns his copy, underline the 
words or expressions the meanings of which are not clear to him. Then, 
after finishing the reading of a lesson, he should look at the notes in 
the back of the book to see if the editor has anticipated his difficulty. 
The items which still seem obscure should then be looked up in any 
available reference books. In this way the reader will have the satisfac- 
tion of working out just what the speaker means. 

23 



24 WEBSTER'S 

may be called the early age of this great continent ; and we 
know that our posterity, through all time, are here to suffer 
and enjoy the allotments of humanity. We see before us a 
probable train of great events; we know that our own fortunes 
5 have been happily cast ; and it is natural, therefore, that we 
should be moved by the contemplation of occurrences which 
have guided our destiny before many of us were born, and 
settled the condition in which we should pass that portion of 
our existence, which God allows to men on earth. 

lo We do not read even of the discovery of this continent, 
without feeling something of a personal interest in the event ; 
without being reminded how much it has affected our own for- 
tunes, and our own existence. It is more impossible for us, 
therefore, than for others, to contemplate with unaffected minds 

15 that interesting, I may say, that most touching and pathetic 
scene, when the great Discoverer of America stood on the deck 
of his shattered bark, the shades of night falling on the sea, yet 
no man sleeping ; tossed on the billows of an unknown ocean, 
yet the stronger billows of alternate hope and despair tossing 

20 his own troubled thoughts ; extending forward his harassed 

frame, straining westward his anxious and eager eyes, till 

Heaven at last granted him a moment of rapture and ecstacy, 

in blessing his vision with the sight of the unknown world. 

Nearer to our times, more closely connected with our fates, 

25 and therefore still more interesting to our feelings and affections, 
is the settlement of our own country by colonists from Eng- 
land. We cherish every memorial of these worthy ancestors ; we 
celebrate their patience and fortitude ; we admire their daring 
enterprise ; we teach our children to venerate their piety ; and 

30 we are justly proud of being descended from men, who have 
set the world an example of founding civil institutions on the 
great and united principles of human freedom and human 
knowledge. To us, their children, the story of their labors 
and sufferings can never be without its interest. We shall not 



I 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 25 

stand unmoved on the shore of Plymouth, while the sea con- 
tinues to wash it ; nor will our brethren in another early and 
ancient colony, forget the place of its first establishment, till 
their river shall cease to flow by it. No vigor of youth, no 
maturity of manhood, will lead the nation to forget the spots 5 
where its infancy was cradled and defended. 

But the great event, in the history of the continent, which we 
are now met here to commemorate ; that prodigy of modern 
times, at once the wonder and the blessing of the world, is the 
American Revolution. In a day of extraordinary prosperity 10 
and happiness, of high national honor, distinction, and power, 
we are brought together, in this place, by our love of country, 
by our admiration of exalted character, by our gratitude for 
signal services and patriotic devotion. 

The society, whose organ I am, was formed for the purpose 15 
of rearing some honorable and durable monument to the 
memory of the early friends of American Independence. They 
have thought, that for this object no time could be more pro- 
pitious, than the present prosperous and peaceful period ; that 
no place could claim preference over this memorable spot; 20 
and that no day could be more auspicious to the undertaking, 
than the anniversary of the battle which was here fought. The 
foundation of that monument we have now laid. With solem- 
nities suited to the occasion, with prayers to Almighty God for 
his blessing, and in the midst of this cloud of witnesses, we 25 
have begun the work. We trust it will be prosecuted ; and 
that springing from a broad foundation, rising high in massive 
solidity and unadorned grandeur, it may remain, as long as 
Heaven permits the works of man to last, a fit emblem, both 
of the events in memory of which it is raised, and of the 30 
gratitude of those who have reared it. 

We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious actions is 
most safely deposited in the universal remembrance of man- 



26 WEBSTER'S 

kind. We know, that if we could cause this structure to 
ascend, not only till it reached the skies, but till it pierced 
them, its broad surfaces could still contain but part of that, 
which, in an age of knowledge, hath already been spread over 
5 the earth, and which history charges itself with making known 
to all future times. We know, that no inscription on entabla- 
tures less broad than the earth itself, can carry information of 
the events we commemorate, where it has not already gone ; 
and that no structure, which shall not outlive the duration of 

10 letters and knowledge among men, can prolong the memorial. 
But our object is, by this edifice to show our own deep sense 
of the value and importance of the achievements of our ances- 
tors ; and, by presenting this work of gratitude to the eye, to 
keep alive similar sentiments, and to foster a constant regard 

15 for the principles of the Revolution. Human beings are com- 
posed not of reason only, but of imagination also, and senti- 
ment ; and that is neither wasted nor misapplied which is 
appropriated to the purpose of giving right direction to senti- 
ments, and opening proper springs of feehng in the heart. 

20 Let it not be supposed that our object is to perpetuate national 
hostility, or even to cherish a mere military spirit. It is higher, 
purer, nobler. We consecrate our work to the spirit of na- 
tional independence, and we wish that the light of peace may 
rest upon it forever. We rear a memorial of our conviction of 

25 that unmeasured benefit, which has been conferred on our own 
land, and of the happy influences, which have been produced, 
by the same events, on the general interests of mankind. We 
come, as Americans, to mark a spot, which must forever be 
dear to us and our posterity. We wish, that whosoever, in all 

30 coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the 
place is not undistinguished, where the first great battle of 
the Revolution was fought. We wish, that this structure may 
proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event, to every 
class and every age. We wish, that infancy may learn the 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 27 

purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and that weary and 
withered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollec- 
tions which it suggests. We wish, that labor may look up 
here, and be proud, in the mfdst of its toil. We wish, that, in 
those days of disaster, which, as they come on all nations, must 5 
be expected to come on us also, desponding patriotism may 
turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the foundations 
of our national power still stand strong. We wish, that this 
column, rising towards heaven among the pointed spires of so 
many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to pro- 10 
duce, in all minds, a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. 
We wish, finally, that the last object on the sight of him who 
leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits 
it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty 
and the glory of his country. Let it rise, till it meet the sun in 15 
his coming ; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and 
parting day linger and play on its summit. 

We live in a most extraordinary age. Events so various 
and so important, that they might crowd and distinguish cen- 
turies, are, in our times, compressed within the compass of a 20 
single life. When has it happened that history has had so 
much to record, in the same term of years, as since the 1 7th 
of June 1775? Our own Revolution, which, under other cir- 
cumstances, might itself have been expected to occasion a war 
of half a century, has been achieved ; twenty-four sovereign 25 
and independent states erected ; and a general government 
established over them, so safe, so wise, so free, so practical, 
that we might well wonder its establishment should have been 
accomplished so soon, were it not far the greater wonder 
that it should have been established at all. Two or three 30 
millions of people have been augmented to twelve ; and the 
great forests of the West prostrated beneath the arm of suc- 
cessful industry j and the dwellers on the banks of the Ohio 



28 WEBSTER'S 

and the Mississippi, become the fellow citizens and neigh- 
bours of those who cultivate the hills of New England. We 
have a commerce, that leaves no sea unexplored ; navies, 
which take no law from superior force ; revenues, adequate 
5 to all the exigencies of government, almost without taxation ; 
and peace with all nations, founded on equal rights and mutual 
respect. 

Europe, within the same period, has been agitated by a 
mighty revolution, which, while it has been felt in the individ- 

10 ual condition and happiness of almost every man, has shaken 
to the centre her political fabric, and dashed against one 
another thrones, which had stood tranquil for ages. On this, 
our continent, our own example has been followed ; and colo- 
nies have sprung up to be nations. Unaccustomed sounds of 

15 liberty and free government have reached us from beyond the 
track of the sun ; and at this moment the dominion of Euro- 
pean power, in this continent, from the place where we stand 
to the south pole, is annihilated forever. 

In the mean time, both in Europe and America, such has 

20 been the general progress of knowledge ; such the improve- 
ments in legislation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, and 
above all in liberal ideas, and the general spirit of the age, 
that the whole world seems changed. 

Yet, notwithstanding that this is but a faint abstract of the 

25 things which have happened since the day of the battle of 
Bunker Hill, we are but fifty years removed from it ; and we 
now stand here, to enjoy all the blessings of our own condi- 
tion, and to look abroad on the brightened prospects of the 
world, while we hold still among us some of those, who were 

30 active agents in the scenes of 1 775, and who are now here, from 
every quarter of New England, to visit, once more, and under 
circumstances so affecting, I had almost said so overwhelming, 
this renowned theatre of their courage and patriotism. 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 29 

Venerable Men 1 you have come down to us, from a for- 
mer generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your 
lives, that you might behold this joyous day. You are now, 
where you stood, fifty years ago, this very hour, with your 
brothers, and your neighbours, shoulder to shoulder, in the 5 
strife for your country. Behold, how altered ! The same 
heavens are indeed over your heads ; the same ocean rolls at 
your feet ; but all else, how changed ! You hear now no roar of 
hostile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame 
rising from burning Charlestown. The ground strewed with 10 
the dead and the dying ; the impetuous charge ; the steady 
and successful repulse ; the loud call to repeated assault ; the 
summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance ; a thou- 
sand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to what- 
ever of terror there may be in war and death ; — all these you 15 
have witnessed, but you witness them no more. All is peace. 
The heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which 
you then saw filled with wives and children and countrymen in 
distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions for 
the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with the 20 
sight of its whole happy population, come out to welcome and 
greet you with an universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a 
felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, 
and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoy- 
ance to you, but your country's own means of distinction and 25 
defence. All is peace ; and God has granted you this sight of 
your country's happiness, ere you slumber in the grave for- 
ever. He has allowed you to behold and to partake the re- 
ward of your patriotic toils ; and he has allowed us, your sons 
and countrymen, to meet you here, and in the name of the 30 
present generation, in the name of your country, in the name 
of liberty, to thank you ! 

But, alas ! you are not all here ! Time and the sword have 
thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Read, 



30 WEBSTER'S 

Pomeroy, Bridge ! our eyes seek for you in vain amidst this 
broken band. You are gathered to your fathers, and live only 
to your country in her grateful remembrance, and your own 
bright example. But let us not too much grieve, that you 
have met the common fate of men. You lived, at least, long 
enough to know that your work had been nobly and success- 
fully accomplished. You lived to see your country's inde- 
pendence established, and to sheathe your swords from war. 
On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, like 



' another morn, 
Risen on mid-noon ; ' — 



and the sky, on which you closed your eyes, was cloudless. 

But — ah ! — Him ! the first great Martyr in this great 
cause ! Him ! the premature victim of his own self-devoting 

15 heart ! Him ! the head of our civil councils, and the destined 
leader of our military bands ; whom nothing brought hither, but 
the unquenchable fire of his own spirit ; Him ! cut off by Provi- 
dence, in the hour of overwhelming anxiety and thick gloom ; 
falling, ere he saw the star of his country rise ; pouring out his 

20 generous blood, like water, before he knew whether it would 
fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage ! how shall I struggle 
with the emotions, that stifle the utterance of thy name ! — Our 
poor work may perish ; but thine shall endure ! This monu- 
ment may moulder away ; the solid ground it rests upon may 

25 sink down to a level with the sea ; but thy memory shall not 
fail ! Wheresoever among men a heart shall be found, that 
beats to the transports of patriotism and liberty, its aspirations 
shall be to claim kindred with thy spirit ! 

But the scene amidst which we stand does not permit us 

30 to confine our thoughts or our sympathies to those fearless 

spirits, who hazarded or lost their lives on this consecrated 

spot. We have the happiness to rejoice here in the presence 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 31 

of a most worthy representation of the survivors of the whole 
Revolutionary Army. 

^ Veterans ! you are the remnant of many a well fought field. 
You bring with you marks of honor from Trenton and Mon- 
mouth, from Yorktown, Camden, Bennington, and Saratoga. 5 
Veterans of half a century ! when in your youthful days, 
you put every thing at hazard in your country's cause, good as 
that cause was, and sanguine as youth is, still your fondest 
hopes did not stretch onward to an hour like this ! At a 
period to which you could not reasonably have expected to 10 
arrive ; at a moment of national prosperity, such as you could 
never have foreseen, you are now met, here, to enjoy the fel- 
lowship of old soldiers, and to receive the overflowings of an 
universal gratitude. 

But your agitated countenances and yoUr heaving breasts in- 15 
form me that even this is not an unmixed joy. I perceive that 
a tumult of contending feelings rushes upon you. The images 
of the dead, as well as the persons of the living, throng to your 
embraces. The scene overwhelms you, and I turn from it. 
May the Father of all mercies smile upon your declining years, 20 
and bless them ! And when you shall here have exchanged 
your embraces ; when you shall once more have pressed the 
hands which have been so often extended to give succour in 
adversity, or grasped in the exultation of victory; then look 
abroad into this lovely land, which your young valor defended, 25 
and mark the happiness with which it is filled ; yea, look 
abroad into the whole earth, and see what a name you have 
contributed to give to your country, and what a praise you 
have added to freedom, and then rejoice in the sympathy and 
gratitude, which beam upon your last days from the improved 30 
condition of mankind. 

. . The occasion does not require of me any particular account 
of the battle of the i yth of June, nor any detailed narrative of 



32 WEBSTER'S 

the events which immediately preceded it. These are fami- 
liarly known to all. In the progress of the great and interest- 
ing controversy, Massachusetts and the town of Boston had 
become early and marked objects of the displeasure of the 
5 British Parhament. This had been manifested, in the Act for 
altering the Government of the Province, and in that for shut- 
ting up the Port of Boston. Nothing sheds more honor on our 
early history, and nothing better shows how little the feelings 
and sentiments of the colonies were known or regarded in 

10 England, than the impression which these measures every where 
produced in America. It had been anticipated, that while the 
other colonies would be terrified by the severity of the punish- 
ment inflicted on Massachusetts, tlie other seaports would be 
governed by a mere spirit of gain ; and that, as Boston was 

15 now cut off from all commerce, the unexpected advantage, 
which this blow on her was calculated to confer on other 
towns, would be greedily enjoyed. How miserably such rea- 
soners deceived themselves ! How little they knew of the 
depth, and the strength, and the intenseness of that feeling 

20 of resistance to illegal acts of power, which possessed the 
whole American people ! Every where the unworthy boon 
was rejected with scorn. The fortunate occasion was seized, 
every where, to show to the whole world, that the colonies were 
swayed by no local interest, no partial interest, no selfish inter- 

25 est. The temptation to profit by the punishment of Boston 
was strongest to our neighbours of Salem. Yet Salem was pre- 
cisely the place, where this miserable proffer was spurned, in 
a tone of the most lofty self-respect, and the most indignant 
patriotism. ' We are deeply affected,' said its inhabitants, * with 

30 the sense of our public calamities ; but the miseries that are 
now rapidly hastening on our brethren in the capital of the 
Province, greatly excite our commiseration. By shutting up the 
Port of Boston, some imagine that the course of trade might 
be turned hither and to our benefit ; but we must be dead to 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 33 

every idea of justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, could we 
indulge a thought to seize on wealth, and raise our fortunes on 
the ruin of our suffering neighbours.' These noble sentiments 
were not confined to our immediate vicinity. In that day of 
general affection and brotherhood, the blow given to Boston 5 
smote on every patriotic heart, from one end of the country to 
the other. Virginia and the CaroHnas, as well as Connecticut 
and New Hampshire, felt and proclaimed the cause to be 
their own. The Continental Congress, then holding its first 
session in Philadelphia, expressed its sympathy for the suffer- 10 
ing inhabitants of Boston, and addresses were received from 
all quarters, assuring them that the cause was a common one, 
and should be met by common efforts and common sacrifices. 
The Congress of Massachusetts responded to these assur- 
ances; and in an address to the Congress at Philadelphia, 15 
bearing the official signature, perhaps among the last, of 
the immortal Warren, notwithstanding the severity of its suf- 
fering and the magnitude of the dangers which threatened 
it, it was declared, that this colony ' is ready, at all times, to 
spend and to be spent in the cause of America.' 20 

But the hour drew nigh, which was to put professions to the 
proof, and to determine whether the authors of these mutual 
pledges were ready to seal them in blood. The tidings of 
Lexington and Concord had no sooner spread, than it was 
universally felt, that the time was at last come for action. A 25 
spirit pervaded all ranks, not transient, not boisterous, but 
deep, solemn, determined, 

' totamque infusa per artus 
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.' 

War, on their own soil and at their own doors, was, indeed, a 30 
strange work to the yeomanry of New England ; but their 
consciences were convinced of its necessity, their country 
called them to it, and they did not withhold themselves from 

3 



34 WEBSTER'S 

the perilous trial. The ordinary occupations of life were 
abandoned; the plough was staid in the unfinished furrow; 
wives gave up their husbands, and mothers gave up their sons, 
to the battles of a civil war. Death might come, in honor, on 
5 the field; it might come, in disgrace, on the scaffold. For 
either and for both they were prepared. The sentiment of 
Quincy was full in their hearts. ' Blandishments,' said that 
distinguished son of genius and patriotism, ' will not fascinate 
us, nor will threats of a halter intimidate ; for, under God, we 

10 are determined, that wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever 
we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men.' 

The 17th of June saw the four New England colonies 
standing here, side by side, to triumph or to fall together ; 
and ^ere was with them from that moment to the end of the 

15 war, what I hope will remain with them forever, one cause, one 
country, one heart. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was attended with the most 
important effects beyond its immediate result as a military 
engagement. It created at once a state of open, public war. 

20 There could now be no longer a question of proceeding against 
individuals, as guilty of treason or rebellion. That fearful 
crisis was past. The appeal now lay to the sword, and the 
only question was, whether the spirit and the resources of the 
people would hold out, till the object should be accomphshed. 

25 Nor were its general consequences confined to our own country. 
The previous proceedings of the colonies, their appeals, reso- 
lutions, and addresses, had made their cause known to Europe. 
Without boasting, we may say, that in no age or country, has 
the public cause been maintained with more force of argument, 

30 more power of illustration, or more of that persuasion which 
excited feeling and elevated principle can alone bestow, than 
the revolutionary state papers exhibit. These papers will 
forever deserve to be studied, not only for the spirit which they 
breathe, but for the ability with which they were written. 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 35 

To this able vindication of their cause, the colonies had now 
added a practical and severe proof of their own true devotion 
to it, and evidence also of the power which they could bring 
to its support. All now saw, that if America fell, she would 
not fall without a struggle. Men felt sympathy and regard, as 5 
well as surprise, when they beheld these infant states, remote, 
unknown, unaided, encounter the power of England, and in the 
first considerable battle, leave more of their enemies dead on 
the field, in proportion to the number of combatants, than 
they had recently known in the wars of Europe. 10 

Information of these events, circulating through Europe, at 
length reached the ears of one who now hears me. He has 
not forgotten the emotion, which the fame of Bunker Hill, and 
the name of Warren, excited in his youthful breast. 

■^1 Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the establishment 15 
of great public principles of liberty, and to do honor to the 
distinguished dead. The occasion is too severe for eulogy to 
the living. But, sir, your interesting relation to this country, 
the peculiar circumstances which surround you and surround 
us, call on me to express the happiness which we derive from 20 
your presence and aid in this solemn commemoration. 

Fortunate, fortunate man ! with what measure of devotion 
will you not thank God, for the circumstances of your ex- 
traordinary life ! You are connected with both hemispheres 
and with two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain, that the 25 
electric spark of Liberty should be conducted, through you, 
from the new world to the old ; and we, who are now here to 
perform this duty of patriotism, have all of us long ago re- 
ceived it in charge from our fathers to cherish your name and 
your virtues. You will account it an instance of your good 30 
fortune, sir, that you crossed the seas to visit us at a time 
which enables you to be present at this solemnity. You now 
behold the field, the renown of which reached you in the 



36 WEBSTER'S 

heart of France, and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom. 
You see the lines of the little redoubt thrown up by the in- 
credible diligence of Prescott ; defended, to the last extrem- 
ity, by his lion-hearted valor ; and within which the corner 

5 stone of our monument has now taken its position. You see 
where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner, McCleary, 
Moore, and other early patriots fell with him. Those who 
survived that day, and whose lives have been prolonged to the 
present hour, are now around you. Some of them you have 

10 known in the trying scenes of the war. Behold ! they now 
stretch forth their feeble arms to embrace you. Behold ! they 
raise their trembling voices to invoke the blessing of God on 
you, and yours, forever. 

Sir, you have assisted us in laying the foundation of this edi- 

15 fice. You have heard us rehearse, with our feeble commenda- 
tion, the names of departed patriots. Sir, monuments and 
eulogy belong to the dead. We give them, this day, to War- 
ren and his associates. On other occasions they have been 
given to your more immediate companions in arms, to Wash- 

20 ington, to Greene, to Gates, Sullivan, and Lincoln. Sir, we 
have become reluctant to grant these, our highest and last 
honors, further. We would gladly hold them yet back from 
the little remnant of that immortal band. Serus in caelum 
redeas. Illustrious as are your merits, yet far, oh, very far dis- 

25 tant be the day, when any inscription shall bear your name, or 
any tongue pronounce its eulogy ! 

The leading reflection, to which this occasion seems to in- 
vite us, respects the great changes which have happened in 
the fifty years, since the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. And 
30 it peculiarly marks the character of the present age, that, in 
looking at these changes, and in estimating their effect on our 
condition, we are obliged to consider, not what has been done 
in our own country only, but in others also. In these interest- 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 3/ 

ing times, while nations are making separate and individual 
advances in improvement, they make, too, a common prog- 
ress ; like vessels on a common tide, propelled by the gales 
at different rates, according to their several structure and man- 
agement, but all moved forward by one mighty current beneath, 5 
strong enough to bear onward whatever does not sink be- 
neath it. 

A chief distinction of the present day is a community of 
opinions and knowledge amongst men, in different nations, ex- 
isting in a degree heretofore unknown. Knowledge has, in our 10 
time, triumphed, and is triumphing, over distance, over differ- 
ence of languages, over diversity of habits, over prejudice, and 
over bigotry. The civilized and Christian world is fast learn- 
ing the great lesson, that difference of nation does not imply 
necessary hostility, and that all contact need not be war. The 15 
whole world is becoming a common field for intellect to act in. 
Energy of mind, genius, power, wheresoever it exists, may 
speak out in any tongue, and the world will hear it. A great 
chord of sentiment and feeling runs through two continents, 
and vibrates over both. Every breeze wafts intelligence from 20 
country to country ; every wave rolls it ; all give it forth, and 
all in turn receive it. There is a vast commerce of ideas ; 
there are marts and exchanges for intellectual discoveries, and 
a wonderful fellowship of those individual intelligences which 
make up the mind and opinion of the age. Mind is the great 25 
lever of all things ; human thought is the process by which 
human ends are ultimately answered ; and the diffusion of 
knowledge, so astonishing in the last half century, has ren- 
dered innumerable minds, variously gifted by nature, compe- 
tent to be competitors, or fellow-workers, on the theatre of 30 
intellectual operation. 

From these causes, important improvements have taken 
place in the personal condition of individuals. Generally 
speaking, mankind are not only better fed, and better clothed, 



38 WEBSTER'S 

but they are able also to enjoy more leisure ; they possess 
more refinement and more self-respect. A superior tone of 
education, manners, and habits prevails. This remark, most 
true in its application to our own country, is also partly true, 

5 when applied elsewhere. It is proved by the vastly aug- 
mented consumption of those articles of manufacture and of 
commerce, which contribute to the comforts and the decencies 
of hfe ; an augmentation which has far outrun the progress of 
population. And while the unexampled and almost incredible 

lo use of machinery would seem to supply the place of labor, 
labor still finds its occupation and its reward; so wisely has 
Providence adjusted men's wants and desires to their condi- 
tion and their capacity. 

Any adequate survey, however, of the progress made in the 

15 last half century, in the polite and the mechanic arts, in ma- 
chinery and manufactures, in commerce and agriculture, in 
letters and in science, would require volumes. I must abstain 
wholly from these subjects, and turn, for a moment, to the 
contemplation of what has been done on the great question of 

20 politics and government. This is the master topic of the age ; 
and during the whole fifty years, it has intensely occupied the 
thoughts of men. The nature of civil government, its ends and 
uses, have been canvassed and investigated ; ancient opinions 
attacked and defended ; new ideas recommended and resisted, 

25 by whatever power the mind of man could bring to the contro- 
versy. From the closet and the public halls the debate has 
been transferred to the field ; and the world has been shaken 
by wars of unexampled magnitude, and the greatest variety of 
fortune. A day of peace has at length succeeded ; and now 

30 that the strife has subsided, and the smoke cleared away, we 
may begin to see what has actually been done, permanently 
changing the state and condition of human society. And 
without dwelling on particular circumstances, it is most appar- 
ent, that, from the beforementioned causes of augmented 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 39 

knowledge and improved individual attention, a real, substan- 
tial, and important change has taken place, and is taking place, 
greatly beneficial, on the whole, to human liberty and human 
happiness. 

The great wheel of political revolution began to move in 5 
America. Here its rotation was guarded, regular, and safe. 
Transferred to the other continent, from unfortunate but nat- 
ural causes, it received an irregular and violent impulse ; it 
whirled along with a fearful celerity ; till at length, like the 
chariot wheels in the races of antiquity, it took fire from the 10 
rapidity of its own motion, and blazed onward, spreading con- 
flagration and terror around. 

We learn from the result of this experiment, how fortunate 
was our own condition, and how admirably the character of 
our people was calculated for making the great example of 15 
popular governments. The possession of power did not turn 
the heads of the American people, for they had long been in 
the habit of exercising a great portion of self-control. Al- 
though the paramount authority of the parent state existed 
over them, yet a large field of legislation had always been 20 
open to our colonial assemblies. They were accustomed to 
representative bodies and the forms of free government ; they 
understood the doctrine of the division of power among dif- 
ferent branches, and the necessity of checks on each. The 
character of our countrymen, moreover, was sober, moral, and 25 
religious; and there was little in the change to shock their 
feelings of justice and humanity, or even to disturb an honest 
prejudice. We had no domestic throne to overturn, no privi- 
leged orders to cast down, no violent changes of property to 
encounter. In the American Revolution, no man sought or 30 
wished for more than to defend and enjoy his own. None 
hoped for plunder or for spoil. Rapacity was unknown to 
it ; the axe was not among the instruments of its accomplish- 
ment ; and we all know that it could not have lived a single 



40 WEBSTER'S 

day under any well founded imputation of possessing a tend- 
ency adverse to the Christian religion. 

It need not surprise us, that, under circumstances less 
auspicious, political revolutions elsewhere, even when well 

5 intended, have terminated differently. It is, indeed, a great 
achievement, it is the master work of the world, to establish 
governments entirely popular, on lasting foundations ; nor is 
it easy, indeed, to introduce the popular principle at all, into 
governments to which it has been altogether a stranger. It 

lo cannot be doubted, however, that Europe has come out of the 
contest, in which she has been so long engaged, with greatly 
superior knowledge, and, in many respects, a highly improved 
condition. Whatever benefit has been acquired, is likely to be 
retained, for it consists mainly in the acquisition of more en- 

15 lightened ideas. And although kingdoms and provinces may 
be wrested from the hands that hold them, in the same manner 
they were obtained ; although ordinary and vulgar power may, 
in human affairs, be lost as it has been won ; yet it is the 
glorious prerogative of the empire of knowledge, that what it 

20 gains it never loses. On the contrary, it increases by the 
multiple of its own power ; all its ends become means ; all its 
attainments, helps to new conquests. Its whole abundant har- 
vest is but so much seed wheat, and nothing has ascertained, 
and nothing can ascertain, the amount of ultimate product. 

25 Under the influence of this rapidly increasing knowledge, 
the people have begun, in all forms of government, to think, 
and to reason, on affairs of state. Regarding government as 
an institution for the public good, they demand a knowledge 
of its operations, and a participation in its exercise. A call for 

30 the Representative system, wherever it is not enjoyed, and 
where there is already intelligence enough to estimate its 
value, is perseveringly made. Where men may speak out, 
they demand it ; where the bayonet is at their throats, they 
pray for it. 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 41 

When Louis XIV said, " I am the state," he expressed the 
essence of the doctrine of unlimited power. By the rules of 
that system, the people are disconnected from the state ; they 
are its subjects ; it is their lord. These ideas, founded in the 
love of power, and long supported by the excess and the abuse 5 
of it, are yielding, in our age, to other opinions; and the civi- 
lized world seems at last to be proceeding to the conviction of 
that fundamental and manifest truth, that the powers of govern- 
ment are but a trust, and that they cannot be lawfully exer- 
cised but for the good of the community. As knowledge is 10 
more and more extended, this conviction becomes more and 
more general. Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the 
firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams. 
The prayer of the Grecian combatant, when enveloped in un- 
natural clouds and darkness, is the appropriate political suppli- 15 
cation for the people of every country not yet blessed with free 
institutions ; 

' Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, 
Give me to see and Ajax asks no more.' 

We may hope, that the growing influence of enlightened 20 
sentiments will promote the permanent peace of the world. 
Wars, to maintain family alliances, to uphold or to cast down 
dynasties, to regulate successions to thrones, which have oc- 
cupied so much room in the history of modern times, if not less 
likely to happen at all, will be less likely to become general and 25 
involve many nations, as the great principle shall be more 
and more established, that the interest of the world is peace, 
and its first great statute, that every nation possesses the power 
of establishing a government for itself. But public opinion has 
attained also an influence over governments, which do not 30 
admit the popular principle into their organization. A neces- 
sary respect for the judgment of the world operates, in some 
measure, as a control over the most unHmited forms of authority. 



42 WEBSTER'S 

It is owing, perhaps, to this truth, that the interesting struggle 
of the Greeks has been suffered to go on so long, without a 
direct interference, either to wrest that country from its pres- 
ent masters, and add it to other powers, or to execute the 
5 system of pacification by force, and, with united strength, lay 
the neck of christian and civilized Greece at the foot of the 
barbarian Turk. Let us thank God that we live in an age, 
when something has influence besides the bayonet, and when 
the sternest authority does not venture to encounter the scorch- 

10 ing power of public reproach. Any attempt of the kind I have 
mentioned, should be met by one universal burst of indigna- 
tion ; the air of the civilized world ought to be made too warm 
to be comfortably breathed by any who would hazard it. 

It is, indeed, a touching reflection, that while, in the fulness 

15 of our country's happiness, we rear this monument to her 
honor, we look for instruction, in our undertaking, to a country 
which is now in fearful contest, not for works of art or memo- 
rials of glory, but for her own existence. Let her be assured, 
that she is not forgotten in the world ; that her efforts are 

20 applauded, and that constant prayers ascend for her success. 
And let us cherish a confident hope for her final triumph. If 
the true spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will 
burn. Human agency cannot extinguish it. Like the earth's 
central fire it may be smothered for a time ; the ocean may 

25 overwhelm it ; mountains may press it down ; but its inherent 
and unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the 
land, and at some time or another, in some place or another, 
the volcano will break out and flame up to heaven. 

Among the great events of the half century, we must reckon, 

30 certainly, the Revolution of South America ; and we are not 
likely to overrate the importance of that Revolution, either to 
the people of the country itself or to the rest of the world. 
The late Spanish colonies, now independent states, under cir- 
cumstances less favorable, doubtless, than attended our own 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 43 

Revolution, have yet successfully commenced their national 
existence. They have accomplished the great object of estab- 
lishing their independence ; they are known and acknowledged 
in the world ; and although in regard to their systems of gov- 
ernment, their sentiments on religious toleration, and their 5 
provisions for public instruction, they may have yet much to 
learn, it must be admitted that they have risen to the condi- 
tion of settled and established states, more rapidly than could 
have been reasonably anticipated. They already furnish an 
exhilirating example of the difference between free govern- 10 
ments and despotic misrule. Their commerce, at this 
moment, creates a new activity in all the great marts of the 
world. They show themselves able, by an exchange of com- 
modities, to bear an useful part in the intercourse of nations. 
A new spirit of enterprise and industry begins to prevail; all 15 
the great interests of society receive a salutary impulse ; and 
the progress of information not only testifies to an improved 
condition, but constitutes, itself, the highest and most essential 
improvement. 

When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the existence of 20 
South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world. The 
thirteen little colonies of North America habitually called 
themselves the * Continent.' Borne down by colonial subjuga- 
tion, monopoly, and bigotry, these vast regions of the South 
were hardly visible above the horizon. But in our day there 25 
hath been, as it were, a new creation. The Southern Hemis- 
phere emerges from the sea. Its lofty mountains begin to lift 
themselves into the light of heaven ; its broad and fertile plains 
stretch out, in beauty, to the eye of civilized man, and at the 
mighty bidding of the voice of political liberty the waters of 30 
darkness retire. 

\ And, now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the con- 
viction of the benefit, which the example of our country has 



44 WEBSTER'S 

produced, and is likely to produce, on human freedom and 
human happiness. And let us endeavour to comprehend, in 
all its magnitude, and to feel, in all its importance, the part 
assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs. We are 
5 placed at the head of the system of representative and popular 
governments. Thus far our example shows, that such govern- 
ments are compatible, not only with respectability and power, 
but with repose, with peace, with security of personal rights, 
with good laws, and a just administration. 

lo We are not propagandists. Wherever other systems are 
preferred, either as being thought better in themselves, or as 
better suited to existing condition, we leave the preference to 
be enjoyed. Our history hitherto proves, however, that the 
popular form is practicable, and that with wisdom and knowl- 

15 edge men may govern themselves ; and the duty incumbent on 
us is, to preserve the consistency of this cheering example, and 
take care that nothing may weaken its authority with the 
world. If, in our case, the Representative system ultimately 
fail, popular governments must be pronounced impossible. 

20 No combination of circumstances more favorable to the exper- 
iment can ever be expected to occur. The last hopes of 
mankind, therefore, rest with us ; and if it should be pro- 
claimed, that our example had become an argument against 
the experiment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded 

25 throughout the earth. 

These are excitements to duty ; but they are not suggestions 
of doubt. Our history and our condition, all that is gone 
before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize the belief, that 
popular governments, though subject to occasional variations, 

30 perhaps not always for the better, in form, may yet, in their 
general character, be as durable and permanent as other sys- 
tems. We know, indeed, that, in our country, any other is 
impossible. The Principle of Free Governments adheres to the 
American soil. It is bedded in it ; immovable as its mountains. 



FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 45 

And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on this 
generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. Those are 
daily dropping from among us, who established our liberty and 
our government. The great trust now descends to new hands. 
Let us apply ourselves to that which is presented to us, as our 5 
appropriate object. We can win no laurels in a war for Inde- 
pendence. Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. 
Nor are there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, 
and other founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. 
But there remains to us a great duty of defence and preserva- 10 
tion ; and there is opened to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which 
the spirit of the times strongly invites us. Our proper business 
is improvement. Let our age be the age of improvement. 
In a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the 
works of peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, 15 
call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its 
great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and gener- 
ation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. 
Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pur- 
suing the great objects, which our condition points out to us, 20 
let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual feeling, 
that these twenty-four states are one country. Let our con- 
ceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. Let us ex- 
tend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in which we are 
called to act. Let our object be, our country, our whole 25 
COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. And, by the blessiug 
of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid 
Monument, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of 
Peace and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze, with 
admiration, forever ! 30 



NOTES 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 

The Text: the text of the Farewell Address is that of its 
original appearance in the American Daily Advertiser^ a file of which is 
to be found in the Lenox Library. Though I have copied the text 
from the newspaper, I have compared this version with the private re- 
print of the Washington manuscript, made by James Lenox in 1850 ; the 
reprint made by the Empire State Society, Sons of the American Revo- 
lution, September 19, 1896; an edition published by John Tiebout in 
New York in 1796; editions printed by Ormrod and Conrad, and by 
Sweitzer and Ormrod in Philadelphia the same year, 1796, and the 
original manuscript itself, to which I have had access through the 
obliging courtesy of the librarian in charge of the Lenox Library, Mr. 
Wilberforce Eames. 

In the newspaper, the address occupies the whole of the second page, 
five columns, and a column and a half of the third page. The Washing- 
ton manuscript consists of thirty-two pages, with holes punched at the 
sides ; the pages are tied together. Since both sides of the pages are 
written upon, the whole manuscript presents the appearance of a book. 
Capitals are used lavishly, though sometimes it is hard to tell whether 
Washington intended a capital or not. A period and a dash follow most 
of the sentences ; frequently a dash follows a semicolon, a comma, or a 
question mark. Instead of a period there is a semicolon or a colon in a 
number of places at the end of a sentence. The sign & is used almost 
always instead of "and." Commas are used freely, especially before re- 
strictive adjective clauses, where present usage prefers no mark of 
punctuation. 

That the newspaper and the early reprints of the address are, on the 
whole, nearer the present-day usage in punctuation and spelling than the 
recent reprints from the manuscript or the manuscript itself is certain. 
An examination of the paragraph beginning " How far in the discharge," 
etc., for example, shows both spelling and punctuation substantially like 
present usage, but in the manuscript there are capitals for "Records" 
and " You" ; there is a comma before " and to the world " ; and there is 

47 



48 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 

a dash after "world." Since, therefore, it would be decidedly confusing 
to follow the manuscript precisely, and since the newspaper edition is 
nearer present usage and had the personal correction of the author (see 
page xxiv), I have followed that text except in a few obvious misprints, 
such as " reigns," page 9, line 6, where the MS. has the proper form 
"reins." 

2 4 an address : see Introduction, page xx. 

2 15 the proper occasion: viz., Washington's inauguration. See 
page xii. 

2 19 Not unconscious : an attempt to give the syntax of " uncon- 
scious" will quickly reveal the dangling construction. If the sentence 
showed correct grammatical relationship, the pronoun /would need to 
be the subject of the verb, and there would need to be a complete recon- | 
struction of the sentence. | 

2 28 does not forbid it : in the manuscript copy of the address there | 
followed another sentence, as the last in the paragraph : " May I also 
have that of knowing in my retreat, that the involuntary errors, I have 
probably committed, have been the sources of no serious or lasting mis- 
chief to our country, I may then expect to realize, without alloy, the 
sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the 
benign influence of good laws under a free government; the ever favorite 
object of my heart, and the happy reward, I trust, of our mutual cares, 
dangers, and labours." Washington obliterated this " to avoid the im- 
putation of affected modesty," as he notes in the margin of his 
manuscript. 

w 3 26 Here, perhaps, I ought to stop : note the short, pointed sentence 
set between long, cumbersome sentences. 

3 28 an occasion like the present : i. e., Washington's announcement 
of his desire to leave the public service and not be considered as a 
possible choice for the presidency for a third term. Strictly there was 
no " occasion " at this time of the same kind as the occasion referred to 
in the first sentence of the fifth paragraph. 

3 30 sentiments : other words used by the author either in the pre- 
liminary drafts of the address or in the final form printed here, in refer- 
ring to the main thoughts of the address, are counsels, subjects, topics, 
hints, and heads. The sentence beginning, " But a solicitude for your 
welfare," contains the idea developed in the whole body of the address. 
In some early editions, extra space is left at the close of the seventh 
paragraph, in order to make the body stand out more clearly. 

44 a former and not dissimilar occasion: Washington's parting 
words to Congress when he resigned as commander-in-chief of the army 
might perhaps be considered to be the reference here, but more probably 



NOTES 49 

his address to the governors of the states at the time of his resignation 
from the army is what he had in mind. See pages xi and xxi. 

4 8 The Unity of Government : the first of the reflections or senti- 
ments deals, it will be seen, with the principle of union in the govern- 
ment. How many paragraphs are devoted to this subject? Does what 
Washington says hold true now ? 

4 24 Palladium : in order not to miss Washington's meaning, consult 
a dictionary for the sense of this word, which is still frequently used. 
The reader should also make sure that he understands the meaning of 
rankness, as used in line ii, page lo. 

4 31 For this : note the transition phrase inserted at the beginning 
of the paragraph. By such devices the writer secures continuity. Com- 
pare the transitional opening of the next paragraph ; it will be noticed, 
in fact, that the entire eleventh paragraph is transitional, that it may be 
called a link paragraph. Cotnpare note on " while we hold still," page 
28, line 29. The transitional phrase in the last line of page 12 was not 
in the original draft; its insertion is an illuminating indication of the 
writer's regard for continuity in the revision of his paper. 

4 34 American: in the original manuscript two lines are drawn under 
AMERICAN, which Is a way of indicating to the printer that the word 
should be set in small capitals. Elsewhere in the address, too, where 
small capitals now appear they were indicated by the double underscor- 
ing in the manuscript which the first printers followed (cf, note on 
North, page 5, line 13). 

5 2 any appellation : the diction in this sentence is decidedly heavy, 
in the Johnsonian manner characteristic of many American writers of 
the period. In the last sentence of the twelfth paragraph, the diction 
is still heavier. 

5 10 your interest: the second leading reflection has to do with the 
unity of sections of the country, rather than with the unity of the govern- 
ment itself, which is developed in the first main section. 

5 13 North: here in the manuscript by underscoring the word the 
writer indicated that he wished North to be set in italics. The same is 
true regarding other words which appear in italics. The present tend- 
ency is to gain emphasis not by a different kind of type but by arrange- 
ment of the words in the sentence ; it is thought now that sufficient 
emphasis can be gained in this way, without the resort to italics. In the 
third from the last sentence of paragraph 26 (p. 12, 1. 17), Washington 
underscored the word desert, but the printer put oaths in italics instead. 

6 5 While then every part : more recent usage would put commas 
before and after " then," which in this place has the force not of time 
but of reason. This transitional word, it is worth noting, is inserted 

4 



50 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 

in the manuscript by a caret. In reading the address through in its 
entirety, the writer doubtless saw that a transitional word here would 
improve the continuity of his thought. In another place, also, page 12, 
line 30, the word then is similarly inserted by a caret for transitional 
effect. Notice the punctuation of the word " likewise," page 11, line 17, 
and page 14, line 25. 

6 28 Let experience solve it ; Washington had something of Burke's 
aversion to " mere speculation." Like Burke, Washington had misgiv- 
ings about what Burke calls " paper government," good in theory, per- 
haps, but never tested in practice. See the whole of the third sentence 
of paragraph 18 (p. 9, 1. 17), containing the statement "experience is the 
surest standard." 

7 19 treaty with Spain : this is called the treaty of San Ildef onso. 
It was negotiated by Thomas Pinckney in 1795. Full details of how it 
affected the interests of the citizens of the Mississippi region can readily 
be found by those students who are carrying on advanced work in Amer- 
ican history parallel with their study of this address. The treaty estab- 
lished the southern boundary of the United States, and secured the free 
navigation of the Mississippi River. 

7 24 two treaties : the treaty with Spain has been already explained. 
For a statement of how the treaty with England favored the interests of 
the inhabitants of our western country, see page xvii. 

8 4 better calculated than your former : the President believed the 
government established under the Constitution to be better suited to 
make a close union than the government established under the Articles 
of Confederation. See page xi. 

8 8 mature deliberation: see Introduction, page xii. 

8 34 digested by common councils : note the balance ending this 
sentence. 

10 1 I have already intimated : see page 7, line 4. The nineteenth 
paragraph, consisting of two sentences, one of which looks back to a 
completed section of the address, and the other of which looks forward 
to a new group of ideas, may be called a link paragraph (cf. page 56). 

10 13 domination of one faction over another : in Grecian, Roman, and 
English history there are illustrations of the truth of the statement by 
Washington that " enormities " have been perpetrated in " different ages 
and countries " through the alternate domination of one party or faction 
over another. So early as 427 B. C. there were bloody party contests in 
Corcyra (Greece), ending in the success of the democrats. In 88 B. C. 
began the war in Rome between the senatorial party of the optimates 
headed by Sulla and the popular party under Marius. The six-year 
struggle between these two parties was marked by a long series of 



NOTES 5 1 

murders ; at one time three thousand prisoners were slaughtered at the 
command of Sulla. Conflict of parties resulted in lawless violence and 
public commotions in England in the time of Cromwell. Addison in an 
essay in The Spectator speaks of the feuds between the Roundheads and 
the Cavaliers, and says that a furious party spirit, when it rages in its full 
violence, exerts itself in civil war and bloodshed. He adds that Italy 
was long torn to pieces by the struggles of the two parties, Guelphs and 
Ghibellines. 

11 4 There is an opinion: notice the method of Washington's argu- 
ment. He refutes certain objections which he feels sure will be brought 
against the truth of his principal proposition. 

11 14 A fire not to be quenched : how would you punctuate this last 
sentence of the paragraph ? 

11 20 avoiding ... to encroach : the practice of the best writers of 
the present time is to use a verbal form in -ing after " avoid." 

11 27 reciprocal checks : for years there have been efforts on the 
part of the Senate to resist encroachment upon their prerogatives by the 
President, and vice versa. In a speech delivered in the Senate in 1838 
regarding the sudden political conversion of Calhoun, Webster referred 
in the following way to the conflict then existing between the executive 
and the legislative branches of the national government : " Here we all 
had been contending against the progress of Executive power, and more 
particularly and most strenuously, against the projects and experiments 
of the Administration upon the currency." According to current news- 
papers the President and the Senate are still serving as reciprocal checks 
in the exercise of political power. Moreover, within the national legisla- 
ture it is not uncommon for the House to resent the attempted encroach- 
ments by the Senate upon its Constitutional function of originating 
revenue measures. 

12 1 an amendment : experience has proved that the difficulty of 
making amendments to the Constitution is greater than the first President 
anticipated. How many amendments to the Constitution have been 
made, and under what circumstances ? 

12 30 institutions for the general diflfasion of knowledge : see Intro- 
duction, page xiv. 

13 2 sparingly: since this "address" was intended to be read, not 
spoken, it is particularly interesting to note a few of the corrections made 
by its author in revision. Here the word first written was "little." 
Then that was interlined, and the more specific and lively word " spar- 
ingly " substituted. In the next sentence " coincide" was written first, 
then stricken out in favor of " co-operate " which more accurately gives 
the shade of meaning desired. On page 14, line 8, the word " a " before 



52 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 

'* habitual" was replaced by "an." There is still diversity of usage in 
such cases as this. On page 17, line 3, the word "occasional," first 
written, gave way to " temporary " in the final form. The shade of 
meaning here also is much improved by the change. 

13 16 inconvenient and unpleasant: see Introduction, page xv, 

13 23 Observe good faith : President McKiuley used the first two sen- 
tences of this paragraph as his text for an eloquent commendation of 
Washington's foreign policy. Extracts from the McKinley address show, 
better than any other commentary that I can think of, the continuing 
value and influence of Washington's sentiments: "To-day, nearly a 
century from Washington's death, we turn reverentially to study the 
leading principles of that comprehensive chart for the guidance of the 
people. It was his unflinching, immovable devotion to these perceptions 
of duty which more than anything else made him what he was, and con- 
tributed so directly to make us what we are. Following the precepts of 
Washington, we cannot err. The wise lessons in government which he 
left us it will be profitable to heed. He seems to have grasped all possi- 
ble conditions and pointed the way safely to meet them. He has estab- 
lished danger signals all along the pathway of the nation's march. . . . 
His wisdom and foresight have been confirmed and vindicated after more 
than a century of experience." 

14 3 nothing is more essential : study the clear method of thought- 
development followed by Washington in the elaboration of this sentence. 
Notice that on page 15, in the sentence beginning "Excessive par- 
tiality for one foreign nation," the same idea announced on page 14 is 
re-stated, after it has been developed fully. Thus the idea is firmly 
clinched. 

14 7 The Nation : the phrasing in this sentence is by no means 
happy. Could you suggest a rearrangement of the words, or a recon- 
struction of the sentence, to make the idea a little clearer .'' 

15 19 insidious wiles of foreign influence : see page xvi. 

16 29 existing engagements : such, for instance, as the treaties with 
England and Spain referred to above. 

17 7 neither seeking nor granting : what other participles in this long 
and complicated sentence are in the same grammatical construction as 
these two ? Note that " rules " is the object of " establishing." 

17 25 a just pride : Washington's tactful appeal to the self-respect of 
the people shows plainly his skill in winning supporters to any policy 
which he had at heart. See also the opening sentence of paragraph 48, 
where there is another kind of appeal, often effective in argument. 

18 10 them: to what noun does this pronoun refer ? 

18 11 the still subsisting war in Europe : in 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte 



NOTES 53 

carried on a brilliant campaign in Italy against the Austrians. This same 
year, too, Spain declared war on England. The proclamation to which 
Washington refers declared the American policy in the crisis of 1793* the 
war between England and France, to be one of strict neutrality. See 
paragraphs 45-48, page 18, line 17, through page 19, line 5. From the 
fact that the President placed his discussion of the proper attitude of 
America to Europe last among the number of his counsels, and then 
selected this topic as an illustration of such of his own acts as carried 
out his sentiments it can easily be seen how deeply he felt on the 
subject of the young nation's foreign relations. Lodge, in his George 
Washitigtoji, has an excellent chapter of about ninety pages headed 
" Foreign Relations." 

18 13 Sanctioned: what is the syntax of this participle ? 

19 20 for several generations : see Introduction, page v. 
19 28 17tli September : see Introduction, page xxiv. 



WEBSTER'S FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 

The Text : after examination of a number of different edi- 
tions of the address, the editor has chosen to follow exactly the text of 
1825 (Lenox Library, New York). The other texts particularly exam- 
ined were that of 1851, printed the year before Webster's death, and 
the second, third, and fifth editions, found in the Lenox Library, the 
Astor Library, and the library of the British Museum. The editions 
of 1825 are practically identical; for example, at the bottom of page 25 
in each a period is raised soriiewhat above the line, and a hyphen has 
dropped out at the end of the line. On the whole, it has seemed best to 
print the earliest text. There are peculiarities of punctuation, of course, 
in the earliest edition, but these will not prove confusing. In fact, it will be 
a good exercise to notice the punctuation of restrictive adjective clauses, 
and the punctuation of substantive clauses, in which early usage differs 
from that of the present ; and the lavish use of semicolons and exclama- 
tion points. The modern tendency is to eliminate punctuation wherever 
it is possible to do so without causing confusion, and to use exclamation 
points sparingly. The reader should be on the outlook for what seem pe- 
culiarities in punctuation in the early text printed here. In spelling, too, 
there are a few oddities, judged by the standard of the latest dictionaries ; 
for instance, " any thing " written as two words. In spite of these differ- 
ences, however, there is nothing to give anyone real trouble. The 
changes in diction in the 185 1 edition, interesting as a revelation of how 



54 WEBSTER'S FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATIOxN 

the author looked at his address years after it was first delivered and 
published, are not of any real significance, for the most part. They have 
nothing like the value of the changes made by Coleridge in his Ancient 
Mariner in the period between his text of 1798 and that of 1S29. It 
therefore seems wise to follow the earliest available text of Webster's 
speech. In the original edition there is extra space between the main 
divisions of the address ; this spacing has been retained in the present 
edition. 

25 1 the shore of Plymouth: the date of the landing of the Pilgrims 
on Plymouth Rock scarcely needs to be given. For a reference to an 
oration of Webster's on the theme of the early settlement of New Eng- 
land, see page xxxi. 

25 2 another early and ancient colony : the reference here is prob- 
ably to the colony of Virginia, in which was situated the early settled 
town of Jamestown. It was a favorite idea of Webster's to couple the 
settlements at Jamestown and at Plymouth ; he makes the reference 
twice in his oration of 1851 at the laying of the corner stone of the addi- 
tion to the Capitol, at Washington, and in the same oration he addresses 
the " men of James River and the Bay, places consecrated by the early 
settlement of their commonwealth." However, Hale thinks the reference 
in the Bunker Hill speech is to the Maryland Colony, founded at St. 
Mary's in 1633. 

25 23 solemnities suited to the occasion: see Introduction, page xl. 

25 27 rising high : the monument is a granite shaft two hundred and 
twenty-one feet high, and thirty feet square at the base. By means of 
a spiral stairway inside the monument, one can climb to the circular 
chamber at the top; there is no elevator, but the climb is not particu- 
larly arduous. The cost of the structure was about $120,000, the cost 
of fencing and grading about $19,000, and the other expenses were 
about $17,000. The expense account for the ceremony of laying the 
corner stone was $4,720.85. In 1843, O'""^ *^^^^ completion of the edifice, 
Webster referred to the high natural eminence on which the Bunker 
Hill Monument is placed, and said that the monument was visible at 
their homes to three hundred thousand 'of the people of Massachusetts. 
Now, however, in spite of the height and " unadorned grandeur " of the 
shaft, it is not Bunker Hill Monument that particularly attracts the gaze 
of the person approaching Boston, but rather the gilded dome of the 
State House. In fact, it must be acknowledged that Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment seems now a little disappointing to one who sees it for the first 
time. 

26 6 entablatures; consult dictionary for the meaning of this archi- 
tectural term. 



NOTES 55 

27 15 till it meet: note the force of the subjunctive, and compare 
"If . . . the Representative system ultimately /a//," page 44, lines 
18-19. 

27 25 twenty-four . . . states : besides the thirteen original colonies 
— New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia — each of which became a state — 
there had been formed either from part of the territory of some of the 
original states or from territory developed and populated later, eleven 
other states at the time Webster spoke, viz., Vermont (from New York), 
1791; Kentucky (from Virginia), 1792; Tennessee (from North Caro- 
lina), 1796; Ohio (created), 1802; Louisiana (bought from France in 
1803), 1812; Indiana (created), 1816; Mississippi (from Georgia), 1817 ; 
Illinois (created), 1818; Alabama (from Georgia), 1819; Maine (from 
Massachusetts), 1820; and Missouri (from Louisiana), 1821. 

27 32 the arm of successful industry: Webster's use of figurative lan- 
guage to embellish his thought is decidedly interesting as exhibited in 
this address. In the first paragraph he spoke of the spacious temple of 
the firmament when he might have said simply the open air. What did 
he gain by the embroidered expression ? What is the name of the figure ? 
Again in the seventh paragraph he said that he hoped labor would be 
proud in the midst of its toil, when he meant the laboring man. What 
was the use of this decoration in language ? Now, in saying the arm of 
industry, when he means the arm of the worker, the frontiersman, he 
makes still another departure from plain, literal statement. It is per- 
haps worth while to label all these departures from strict literalness, 
and so gain specific knowledge of the names of Webster's figures of 
speech ; it is certainly desirable to consider the gain to his oration se- 
cured by these and other adornments which the reader will be pleased 
to notice. See the elaborate simile on page 37, and the striking and 
brilliant metaphors on pages 35 and 37. The metaphor on page 41 is 
also unusually original in its boldness. The simile on page 42 helps to 
make Webster's idea seem more forcible as well as clearer than a bare 
literal statement would have made it. 

28 1 become : the syntax of this word is not apparent at a glance. 
It would be a little more effective English, because clearer, to write Aave 
become here, instead of " become " alone, which forces the reader to look 
back and find the " have." 

28 3 no sea unexplored : compare Burke's Conciliation, " No sea but 
what is vexed by their fisheries." 

28 11 dashed against one another thrones : the French Revolution 
and the Napoleonic wars disturbed monarchs of all Europe so that they 



56 WEBSTER'S FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 

feared for the security of their thrones. There was, as it were, a great 
earthquake which shook the thrones and sent them crashing down to- 
gether. That is what Webster means by saying that the revolution in 
Europe dashed thrones against each other. The word thrones stands 
for the kings who occupied the thrones. What is the name of this figure 
of speech ? Among the monarchs who trembled lest they might lose 
their kingdoms were Charles IV of Spain and Ferdinand IV of Naples. 
Charles IV abdicated in March, 1808, in favor of his son, and then both 
were compelled by Napoleon to renounce the throne a few months later. 
About the same time Ferdinand of Naples was also dethroned by Napo- 
leon, the throne being then given to Napoleon's brother, 

28 15 from beyond the track of the sun: z. e., from Central and South 
America. Vertical rays of the sun describe on the earth, as it turns on 
its axis, a great circle, the Tropic of Cancer, which might be called the 
track of the sun. South of this would be the American republics referred 
to by Webster as struggling into existence with unaccustomed sounds 
of liberty. As early as 1823 the Central American Confederation was 
established, including Honduras, Guatemala, etc. ; and not long after 
1825 these free states became independent republics. In South America 
(cf p. 42, 1. 33), Chile proclaimed its independence of Spain in 1818, 
Peru in 182 1. Peru finally defeated the Spanish viceroy only a few 
months before Webster spoke. As Webster says, there were sounds of 
liberty to the south; as the historians explain, there were in the first 
quarter of the century successful Central and South American rebel- 
lions of numerous Spanish and Portuguese colonies. 

28 18 annihilated forever : for a reference to the American policy 
which helped to make permanent the elimination of European power 
on the American continent, see Introduction, page xxxi. President 
Monroe's Message to Congress in 1823 enunciated the doctrine that 
bears his name. 

28 29 while we hold still : Webster's transitions in this oration are 
exceedingly deft. It is a keen pleasure to notice how in a number of 
places he skillfully prepares the way for the introduction of a new line 
of thought, what might be termed a new section of his speech. Here, 
by the long clause of time beginning with "while we hold still," he pre- 
pares for his touching and fervid direct address to the survivors of the 
battle. Again, on page 30, line 5, he leads the way to his apostrophe to 
Warren by three transition sentences, beautifully constructed, beginning, 
" You lived, at least, long enough to know." A similarly effective transi- 
tion, too, may be seen in paragraph 15 (p. 30, 1. 29), a short paragraph 
wholly transitional. Paragraph 23 (p. 35, 1. ii), also serves as a link 
between two main divisions of the oration. 



NOTES 57 

28 30 from every quarter of New England : see Introduction, page 
xxxix. In his address delivered in 1843, on the occasion of the comple- 
tion of the monument, Webster gives the names of thirteen venerable 
men then present who •* bore arms for their country" either at Con- 
cord and Lexington or on Bunker Hill, 

29 7 the same ocean rolls: this reference always puzzles students 
who understand the geographical situation, as explained on page xlviii 
of the Introduction. The fact is that Webster in this reference to the 
ocean is speaking in a large oratorical sense, unhampered by strict 
geography. The ocean could plainly be seen from Breed's Hill, but 
strictly does not roll by it. 

29 10 strewed : is strowed, which is the form of the word printed in 
a later text, the form used at present .-' 

29 27 forever : this word is omitted in the later text. 

30 10 another morn : from Book V of Milton's Paradise Lost, lines 
310 and 311. 

30 13 Him ! the first great Martjrr : a glance through the celebrated 
apostrophe to General Warren shows clearly the method of the orator in 
this part of the speech. Though Webster planned the main lines before- 
hand, it is clear that he did not painstakingly work out all the details, 
but allowed himself a margin for truly extemporaneous thoughts. Speak- 
ing, in the third person, about Warren, who has been long dead, he sud- 
denly shifts to a conception of this martyred patriot as if he were actually 
present, and addresses him directly, saying, " how shall I struggle with 
the emotions that stifle the utterance of thy name ! Our poor work may 
perish ; but thine shall endure ! " Edward Everett, in commenting on 
this change of persons, from the third to the second, remarks that Web- 
ster could not be content merely to " pour forth fervors a week old." 
Bearing in the main the marks of premeditated oratory, the speech 
nevertheless has impromptu, emotional elements. 

Regarding Warren himself little needs to be added to what has 
already been said in the Introduction, page 1. A graduate of Harvard 
College (1759), he became a much beloved physician who heartily es- 
poused the patriot cause. At the time of his death he was Grand Master 
of the Grand Lodge of Free-Masons of Massachusetts. It was for 
this reason that King Solomon's Lodge erected in his honor and to com- 
memorate his associates the first monument on Bunker Hill. All who 
visit the present monument notice in the room at its base the model of 
that first monument erected to Warren. 

30 31 this consecrated spot : it may seem a little far-fetched, but this 
place is as good as any in the speech for directing attention to Lincoln's 
Gettysburg address, the only American speech which can be compared 



58 WEBSTER'S FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 

with the Bunker Hill oration in effectiveness as commemorative oratory. 
Lincoln says, " We cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground." 
His whole oration, being short, may well be read at this point : — 

" Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this 
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
sition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great 
civil war, testing whether that nation — or any nation so conceived and 
so dedicated — can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of 
that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final 
resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might 
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a 
larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow 
this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have 
consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will 
little note, nor long remember, what we say here ; but it can never forget 
what they did here. 

" It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished 
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It 
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before 
us ; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that 
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we 
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this 
nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom; and that govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from 
the earth." 

31 3 Veterans: in his direct address to the Revolutionary soldiers 
who were present, the speaker uses the words "Venerable Men " for the 
survivors of Bunker Hill, and the term " Veterans" for those who fought 
in other battles of the war, but not at Bunker Hill. For the number of 
old soldiers present see Introduction, page xxxix. 

31 19 The scene overwhelms you : see Introduction, page xliii. 

32 2 interesting : does Webster show poverty in his vocabulary be- 
cause he uses this word " interesting " in other places in the address, as 
on page 36, line 33 and on page 42, line i. 

32 5 This had been manifested: Volume IV of the six-volume edition 
of Bancroft's History of the United States of America or any good edition 
of Burke's "Conciliation" speech, for example, Lamont's, maybe con- 
sulted for abundant details regarding the severe measures taken by 
Parliament to curb the Massachusetts spirit. Webster mentions only 
two measures, but there were several other enactments of similar intent. 
What Webster calls the " act for altering the government of the Province " 
was passed by Parliament May 11, 1774, and assented to by King George 



NOTES 59 

III on the morning of the twentieth. Its exact title was " An Act for 
the better regulating the government of the province of Massachusetts 
Bay in New England." The act made obnoxious changes in the govern- 
ment, such as, (i) Providing for the appointment of the upper house of 
the legislature, called the council, by the crown, whereas it had formerly 
been elected by the lower house, (2) Giving to the royal governor the ap- 
pointment of judges, magistrates, sheriffs, (3) Putting the selection of 
jurymen into the hands of the sheriffs, instead of the people by regular 
election, as before, (4) Forbidding the holding of town meetings not sanc- 
tioned by the governor. The Boston Port Bill, which was passed in 
March of the same year, unanimously, in both the house of lords and the 
house of commons, reached Boston May 10, and was put into effect the 
first of the following month. It provided for the closing of the port of 
Boston, the transferring of the board of customs to Marblehead, and the 
seat of government to Salem. In three weeks from the time the act was 
received the whole continent made the cause of Boston its own. Another 
of the repressive measures was the act providing for the trial in England, 
or elsewhere outside of Massachusetts, of any person accused of murder 
or other capital offense, if the crime appeared to have been committed in 
helping a magistrate suppress disorder, iu other words, if it had been 
committed in aiding the government. 

33 9 The Continental Congress : see Introduction, page ix. 

33 25 was . . . come : the present feeling for language is to say had 
instead of was in such expressions. 

33 28 totamque infusa . . . miscet : from Vergil's jEneid, VI, 726, 
which may be translated, " an intelligence infused through the members 
of the universe actuates the whole frame and mingles with, the great body 
of the universe." Conington's free poetical translation is — 

A bright intelligence, which darts 
Its influence through the several parts 
And animates the whole. 

34 6 The sentiment of Quincy : Josiah Quincy was one of the most ^ 
eloquent agitators in behalf of the popular cause from about 1767 till his 
death in 1775. 

34 32 the revolutionary state papers: Webster explains this expression 
himself, a few lines above, in mentioning the appeals, resolutions, and 
addresses of the colonies, yet readers nearly always fail to see that the 
term " revolutionary state papers " means the same as " appeals, resolu- 
tions, and addresses." 

35 10 wars of Europe : in the quarter century before the American 
Jievolution there were, on the Continent, numerous battles engaged in 



6o WEBSTER'S FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 

by Frederic of Prussia against the French and Austrians, such as Ross- 
bach in 1757 ; and against the Austrians and Russians, such as the Frank- 
fort-on-the-Oder engagement of 176 1. There were wars, too, against the 
Turks, waged by Russia (Ploetz's Epitome of Aiiciejtt, Mediceval, and 
Modern Histo)-y, translated by Tillinghast). The number of casualties 
in these battles, Webster explains, was not so great, compared with the 
number of men engaged, as the casualties in the Bunker Hill battle. For 
the proportion in that contest, see page li. 

35 14 his youthful breast: Lafayette was born in 1757. 

35 17 severe; consult a large dictionary to find a meaning for "severe" 
that will precisely fit this context. 

36 23 Serus in coelum redeas : part of a line from the Latin poet, 
Horace, Book I, Ode 2, line 45, which means, when translated freely: 
may it be long before you return to the skies. 

36 30 character of the present age: compare the first sentence of 
paragraph 8. It is worth while to study the duplication of thought in 
the third and seventh main divisions of the speech. A comparison of the 
vivid explanation, in this address, of the changes since the battle with 
the dry, statistical information on a similar subject in a later oration, in 
1851, at the laying of the corner stone of the addition to the Capitol, re- 
veals the difference between emotional, oratorical utterance and business- 
like facts. In the 185 1 speech Webster says, " Since that time [the 
laying of the corner stone of the Capitol by President Washington, 18 
September, 1793] astonishing changes have been wrought in the con- 
dition and prospects of the American people ; and a degree of progress 
witnessed with which the world can furnish no parallel." The table 
which he then gives to explain this idea shows the number of states in 
1793 compared with the number in 1851, tells the population of seven 
large cities at the two dates, the comparative imports, exports. Treasury 
receipts, etc., making over a page of solid statistics. Such a difference 
in methods of public speaking helps to explain why the Bunker Hill ad- 
dress has won its place as a great oratorical effort while the 1851 address 
is not often read now. 

36 30 in looking at these changes: notice that the participle gram- 
matically depends on a subject which follows. Many blunders in school 
compositions result from lack of care in the management of the relation 
of participles. Webster is here a good model 

37 10 Knowledge has . . . triumphed: the first quarter of the nine- 
teenth century was remarkable for the development of inventions to an- 
nihilate distance : steamboats, railroads, the electric telegraph. The first 
railroad on the Western Continent, says Hale, was constructed to help 
in hurrying the building of the Bunker Hill Monument. 



NOTES 6 I 

38 15 the polite and the mechanic arts : Webster's care in the details 
of expression amounts sometimes almost to pedantry. However, it is 
pleasing to notice such marks of care as the repetition of the before 
mechanic because that adjective does not have the same meaning as 
polite. Many writers are careless about this rule of rhetoric. All through 
this long paragraph there are interesting features of rhetorical skill. 
Observe the groups of twos, and the series of threes, e. g., " in commerce 
and agriculture, in letters and in science"; "real, substantial, and im- 
portant." Doubtless the reader has been noticing here and there the 
groupings of ideas in series of phrases, as for example back in the fifth 
paragraph, the last sentence. Sometimes this handling of ideas in 
phrases or clauses or sentences of similar structure produces what may 
be called repeated structure, as in paragraph 7 (p. 26, 1. 22), " We con- 
secrate . . . We rear . . . We come . . . We wish . . . We wish . . . 
We wish . . . We wish . . . We wish . . . We wish . . . We wish ..." 

39 5 political revolution : notice the thought connection between the 
thirtieth and thirty-first paragraphs. 

39 28 no domestic throne to overturn : the negative items in the rest 
of this paragraph exhibit the use of a valuable method of paragraph 
development, telling what is not true of the subject under discussion 
and so making plainer the significance of what is said to be true. The 
method of negation is often one of the best devices for explanation. 

39 33 the axe = the guillotine. In France there was frightful blood- 
shed when the people endeavored to overturn the monarchy and cast 
down the privileged orders. More than twenty-eight hundred persons 
perished by the guillotine in the Place de la Concorde, Paris, between 
21 January, 1793, and 3 May, 1795. C>f course, there was nothing like 
this in America as a result of the war for freedom from England. Yet 
is it not true that the treatment of many of the loyalists or Tories was 
more severe than could be gathered from what Webster says ? 

40 G the master work of the world: compare page 38, line 20. 

41 1 Louis XIV : King of France, during one of the longest and most 
absolute reigns in history, 1643-1715. His famous saying, " L'Etat, c^est 
moi*' is translated by Webster, " I am the state." The King simply 
meant by this that he considered himself the absolute ruler of the na- 
tion, with unlimited power. 

41 14 the Grecian combatant: i. e., Ajax. In the 1851 edition "com- 
batant" is changed to " champion." The quotation beginning " Dispel 
this cloud," appears with double instead of single quotes in the 1851 text. 
The quotation is translated from Book XVII of Homer's Iliad. 

41 21 permanent peace of the world: what recent attempts have been 
made to establish peace permanently in the civilized world } 



62 WEBSTER'S FIRST BUNKER HILL ORATION 

42 1 the interesting struggle of the Greeks : compare the first sentence 
of paragraph 37 (p. 42, 1. 14). The Grecian war for independence from 
Turkey began in 182 1. See Introduction, page xxxii, and consult Ploetz's 
Epitome or an encyclopaedia for further details of the struggle. 

42 26 heaven cause to stir, swell, or bulge upward {Cetilicry Diction- 
ary, definition 5, under heave, transitive). 

42 29 half century: this is a hyphenated word in the 1851 edition. 
Usage at present inclines to use no hyphen here. This paragraph 
is worth studying closely to see how the opening topic sentence is 
developed. 

43 15 A new spirit of enterprise : this sentence begins a new para- 
graph in the 1851 text. Does the thirty-eighth paragraph lack unity.? 
Ought it to be divided into two paragraphs, each having a central 
thought ? 

43 22 thirteen little colonies : compare page 55. 

43 26 hath been : the old verb form lends an air of dignity, a touch of 
Biblical loftiness, to the orator's language. Observe, too, the rhythmical 
flow of the last clause of the paragraph, part of which might almost be 
scanned it runs so regularly in iambic and anapestic feet. 

44 10 propagandists : persons devoting themselves to the spread of 
any system of principles {Century Dictionary). 

44 19 must be pronounced impossible : by what method does Webster 
prove the truth of this assertion ? Could this be called a fortiori 
reasoning.? 

44 26 excitements : would incitements be better ? 

44 30 in form: the phrasing in this long sentence is not of the best. 
Would the meaning be plainer if the comma after •' form " were omitted } 
Would the idea seem clearer if " in form " preceded "perhaps " ? 

44 34 bedded : it is a diverting exercise in diction to try to think of 
a better word than "bedded" for this particular place in the sentence. 

45 8 Nor: notice how transition is secured by the connectives in this 
paragraph. Is the paragraph unified } 

45 8 Solon, and Alfred : information regarding the governments which 
were founded by Solon and Alfred can be easily gained by reference to 
Lippincott's Prononncifig Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, an 
almost indispensable reference book for school libraries. 

45 22 twenty-four states : compare page 27 , line 25 , and see note. 

45 27 a vast and splendid Monument : compare page 25, and consider 
how skillfully Webster rounds out his oration by going back to an idea 
started at the beginning and clinching it at the end after all his expo- 
sition has made it entirely clear. 



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THE CLASSIC MYTHS IN 
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